Te Wharerahi

Te Wharerahi (c.1770-18??) was a highly respected rangatira (chief) of the Ipipiri (Bay of Islands) area of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Aside from other connections, he was Ngati Tautahi. His mother was Te Auparo and his father Te Maoi; his brothers the chiefs Moka Te Kainga-mataa and Rewa and sister, Te Karehu. Both Te Auparo and Te Karehu were killed by a Ngare Raumati raiding party and their bodies eaten. The women were working in a keha (turnip) plantation. The war cry "Patukeha" was used when the raupatu was ordered.

Te Wharerahi married Tari, the sister of the Hokianga chiefs Eruera Maihi Patuone and Tāmati Wāka Nene. Tari, Patuone and Nene were all children of the Ngāti Hao chief Tapua and his wife Te Kawehau. In one sense, the marriage of Te Wharerahi and Tari cemented an alliance between a key hapu of the Bay of Islands and the Hokianga, just as the marriage of Tapua and Te Kawehau had done.

Te Wharerahi and his two brothers Rewa and Moka 'Kainga-mataa' participated in the bloody Musket Wars of the 1820s-1830s, which caused wholesale destruction across the North Island; resulting in numerous deaths, imprisonment, and the displacement of a large number of people. Te Wharerahi took part in numerous battles, such as Mokoia, Te Totara, and Matakitaki. (Elder, 1932, p. 342; & Percy Smith, 1910, pp. 218–343).

Te Wharerahi and his two brothers were original signatories to the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand signed at Waitangi on October 28, 1835, which guaranteed the Māori chiefs their sovereignty with this document being officially recognised by the Crown in 1836. A few years later, the Crown could see the benefits to the British Empire in gaining sovereignty over these islands and in 1839, would decide to attempt to annex New Zealand. The Crown decided to achieve this by introducing a new document which would in effect, revoke the Declaration of Independence.

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