Te Rangihaeata

Te Rangihaeata (c. 1780s – 18 November 1855), was a Ngāti Toa chief, nephew of Te Rauparaha. He had a leading part in the Wairau Affray and the Hutt Valley Campaign.

A member of the Ngāti Toa, he was born at Kawhia around 1780. His father Te Rakaherea was a war leader of his people and died at the Battle of Hingakaka fighting the Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto iwi. His mother was the elder sister of Te Rauparaha and an important ariki in her own right. Te Rangihaeata grew up in Te Rauparaha's shadow and became his trusted ally. Te Rauparaha was the strategist and negotiator while Te Rangihaeata tended to be the active warrior, and they were effective in conquering the various Maori iwi and hapu who lived in the modern Wellington and Nelson/Marlborough regions.

Te Rangihaeata rose to prominence during the period of intertribal fighting now known as the Musket Wars. In 1819 while returning from a raid in the Cook Strait area the Ngāti Toa clashed with the Ngāti Apa around Turakina, near Bulls. During the subsequent fighting Te Rangihaeata captured and then married the chief's daughter. This was the beginning of a long-term association between the two tribes, fortunately, as the Ngāti Toa were soon forced to return the area.

Arriving back in their own tribal territories the war party found that the Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto Māori had decided the Ngāti Toa were undesirable neighbours and for a long time a state of war existed between them. Although greatly outnumbered and outgunned, Te Rangihaeata conducted a successful defence until Te Rauparaha was able to use his diplomatic skills to extricate the tribe. This was the beginning of their migration down to the Paraparaumu and Kapiti Coast area. They subsequently conquered most of that region and the upper parts of the South Island, occupying and claiming ownership of the land by right of conquest.

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