Te Kooti

Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (Gisborne, c. 1832–1893) was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla fighter.

While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and became a religious leader. In 1868 he led the escape of 168 prisoners, seizing the schooner Rifleman and sailing back to the North Island where he began a series of raids. A resultant military reprisal campaign became known as Te Kooti's War. He was pardoned in 1883 but continued to be active in spreading the Ringatu message of peace and reclaiming land from Pakeha.

Te Kooti's early years are obscure. He was born at Te Pa-o-Kahu in the Gisborne region as a son of Hone Rangipatahi (father) and Hine Turakau (mother), of the Rongowhakaata tribe (iwi). Their hapū was Ngati Maru, whose villages were situated near the Awapuni lagoon, where the Waipaoa River runs into the ocean. Arikirangi is thought to be the original name of Te Kooti. His birth date is thought to be approximately 1832.

A matakite (visionary) of Nukutaurua on Mahia Peninsula, named Toiroa Ikariki (Ikarihi), prophesied the birth of Te Kooti (as well as the coming of the white men, the Pākehā):

Tiwha tiwha te pō.
Ko te Pakerewhā
Ko Arikirangi tenei ra te haere nei.

Dark, dark is the night.
There is the Pakerewhā
There is Arikirangi to come.

The song is dated 1766. The Pakerewhā where strangers with red or white skin and Arikirangi was a grandchild of Toiroa, still to be born.

Te Kooti is understood to be his Christian baptismal name.

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