Te Rarawa

Te Rarawa

Te Rarawa share’s a 6,000 year history of traversing the vast southern Pacific oceans. Te Rarawa ancestry flows from it’s tupuna & Tawhaki, toi, kiwa whose lineages can be traced from numerous pacific locations to living Te Rarawa communities of today. Perhaps the most important icon of Te Rarawa prehistory is Māui who is credited with discovering Te Ika a Māui giving rise to the very first name of our region Te Hiku o Te Ika a Māui, The Tail of the Fish of Māui. Te Rarawa genealogy descends from Māui and the Māui attributes are throughout our culture and cultural institutions. Māui, who was born of people but raised by the divine elements, ended an era that we barely understand today by losing a battle with death that cannot now be won.

Kupe the explorer ancestor introduces the next period of history. Kupe is a well remembered and understood ancestor of all Māori people and with one of his wives, Kuramarotini, renamed Te Ika ā Māui, as Aotearoa. Kupe initiated the first rites of manawhenua in Aotearoa. This was achieved by the discovery, installation of tapu and the naming of numerous locations throughout Te Hiku o Te Ika and Aotearoa. Kupe and his descendants brought with them an ancient model of Polynesian social organisation contained in sacred Whare Wānanga and based on values derived from common Polynesian understandings. After circumnavigating Aotearoa and part of Te Waka ā Māui (the South Island), Kupe returned to the North to finally depart Aotearoa after about fifteen years. The naming of Te Hokianga Nui ā Kupe (Hokianga Harbour) commemorates this event and cements the first chapter of Te Rarawa history in Aotearoa between 650 and 950 AD.

 

at Motukaraka on the Hokianga Harbour represents the hapū of Ngāi Tūpoto and Ngāti Here. It also has close associations with Ngāpuhi. Hapū interests in land include Tapuwae, Motukaraka, Pūrakau, Tautehere, Manganuiowae, Taraire, Te Karae, Pikipāria and Tauteihiihi.

I got this information from http://www.terarawa.iwi.nz/te-rarawa-te-iwi.html