the ongoing conflict with Ngaiterangi’.¹³⁵ Mikaere and Ashby state that about that time Ngati Pukenga were ‘participating with Hauraki iwi in raids into Te Arawa territory’, and that Ngati Pukenga were with Ngati Maru at Te Totara Pa when it was sacked by Nga Puhi in 1821 (although there is some evidence to suggest that some Ngati Pukenga were fighting on the same side as Nga Puhi).¹³⁶ Ngati Pukenga are said to have been invited to Hauraki at this time by Te Puhi of Ngati Maru to assist in the conflict with Ngati Paoa (in turn assisted by Nga Puhi).¹³⁷ In 1828, Ngati Pukenga joined Ngati Maru and Ngati Tamatera in the successful attack on the Ngai Te Rangi pa at Te Papa. Mikaere and Ashby assert that ‘the fortunes of Ngati Pukenga were firmly tied to the iwi of Hauraki … a number of them were living with Hauraki at Haowhenua near modern-day Cambridge’. They state that when Marutuahu returned to Hauraki following the battle of Taumatawiwi about 1830, Ngati Pukenga accompanied them.¹³⁸

The origins of the name Manaia are unknown to Mikaere and Ashby, but it is acknowledged that the name is very old and may derive from Hawaiki. They state that Manaia is said to have been a rich resource area as evidenced in the whakatauki ‘Ko Manaia, he pataka kai’ (Manaia the food store).¹³⁹ According to Mikaere and Ashby, Manaia was held by Ngati Huarere (an iwi we have discussed in section 2.2.1) prior to the arrival of Marutuahu in Hauraki. After their victories over Ngati Huarere, Ngati Maru and Ngati Whanaunga divided the Manaia lands between them, with Ngati Maru taking the southern side of the harbour and Ngati Whanaunga the northern.¹⁴⁰ Mikaere and Ashby state that ‘Today, families of Ngati Maru and Ngati Whanaunga descent still hold much of the land on the eastern (or northern) side of the Manaia River’.¹⁴¹

There are two accounts of how land at Manaia came to be a tuku to Ngati Pukenga. The first, by Mikaere and Ashby, ‘tells that the tuku was made as payment for assistance given by Ngati Pukenga in avenging the killing of two Ngati Maru chiefs, Pataua and Te Waha’ at the hands of Tuwharetoa and Ngati Raukawa in two separate skirmishes. In this version, in return for their assistance, Te Tapuru, who was Pataua’s daughter and Te Waha’s sister, ‘is said to have stood [at the celebrations following the victory] and said: ‘E Te Kou! Na te kore kai, engari ma koutou taku whenua i Manaia’ (Te Kou! Because there is no food (here), there can be a place for you at Manaia).¹⁴² Te Kou refers to Te Kou-o-Rehua, a chief of Ngati

135. Document I2, p 7

136. Ibid, p 8; Na Takaanui Tarakawa I Tuhituhi, ‘Nga Mahi a Te Wera me Nga-Puhi Hoki, Ki Te Tai Rawhiti’, Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol 8, no 32 (1899), p 179; Stephenson Percy Smith, ‘The Fall of Te Tumu Pa, Near Maketu, Bay of Plenty’, Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol 32, no 3 (1923), p 127

137. Monin, This is My Place, p 50

138. Document I2, p 9

139. Ibid, p 11

140. Ibid, p 12

141. Ibid, p 13

142. Ibid, pp 15-18. Mikaere and Ashby state (p 18) that there is an alternative view that ‘Te Tapuru gave her interests in the land to Ngati Pukenga out of aroha’: that ‘she felt sorry for Ngati Pukenga’s drifting from place to place’. But this version, they say, ‘was not widely supported at the time it was given’ in 1872.