Ruapani

Ruapani was a rangatira (chief) of the Māori in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (the Poverty Bay-region on the East Coast of New Zealand) in the 15th and 16th century.

He is said to have been the paramount chief of all the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525. His influence was large, it extended into the Ruakituri Valley and the Whakapūnaki district as far as the Huiarau Range beyond Lake Waikaremoana.

The aristocratic lines of descent from Pāoa and Kiwa of the Horouta waka converged upon Ruapani and his rule was undisputed.

His whakapapa is shown in two images:

Mackay gives a slightly different version of the history, resuming an address by Captain W. T. Pitt to the Rotary Club of Gisborne in 1934. When “the Tākitimu waka called in at Nukutaurua (Mahia Peninsula), her captain (Kiwa) left her and, with a small party, set off overland for Turanga (Poverty Bay). There he met Pāoa, Horouta's captain. To celebrate the occasion they agreed that Kahutuanui (Kiwa's son) should wed Hine-a-Kua (Paoa's daughter). The descendants of this illustrious couple married with the issue of Paikea (who was reputed to have journeyed to New Zealand on the back of a whale); with those of Maia (who was said to have crossed the seas on a gourd), and with the Toi people. When the seventh generation was reached, the head chief was Ruapani, in whom converged all the lines of Maori greatness.”

Ruapani is also said to be descendant from Hine Hikirirangi, the sister of Pāoa. She was the ancestor who nurtured the kūmara (sweet potato) she had brought from Hawaiki in her sacred basket.

Ruapani lived in his pā, Popoia, near Waituhi, some 20 km north west of nowadays Gisborne. He had three wives; in order, Wairau, Uenukukōihu and Rongomaipāpā. When Ruapani died, Tūhourangi took Rongomaipāpā as his wife and founded the Tuhourangi iwi in Rotorua, which is also part of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes.

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