Hotunui
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Hotunui was a Māori rangatira (chieftain) of the Tainui tribal confederation of Waikato, New Zealand. Through his son Marutūāhu he is the ancestor of four tribes of the Hauraki Gulf: Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Rongoū, Ngāti Tamaterā, and Ngāti Whanaunga. He probably lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century.[1]
Marriage to Mihi-rāwhiti
According to the Tainui traditions reported by Pei Te Hurinui Jones, Hotunui was the son of Uenuku-te-rangi-hōkā, son of Whatihua (through whom he was a male-line descendant of Hoturoa, the captain of the Tainui) and Rua-pū-tahanga of Ngāti Ruanui (through whom he was a descendant of Turi, the captain of the Aotea canoe). He had two half-brothers, Tamāio[2] and Mōtai.[3] Uenuku-te-rangi-hōkā went to live in south Taranaki, the homeland of his mother, settling at Taukōkako, near Taiporohēnui, where Hotonui was born.[2]
Ngāti Maru tradition appears to identify Hotunui with Hoturoa,[4] but while Jones concedes that Hotunui may be an alternative name for Hoturoa, he insists that the father of Marutūāhu is a different, later individual.[2]
When Hotonui grew up, he married a lady from Kāwhia, Mihi-rāwhiti (perhaps originally named Whaea-tapoko) daughter of Māhanga (son of Tūheita, rival of Kōkako and a descendant of Hoturoa),[5] and they split their time between Taranaki and Kāwhia. Their first two sons, Manu-kōpiri and Maru-wharanui, were born in south Taranaki.[6] During a stay in Kāwhia, some of Māhanga's kūmara were stolen and Hotonui's footprints were found outside, so he was accused of the theft.[6] In his fury, Māhanga went out, uprooted all of Hotunui's kumara plants and crushed their mounds.[7] Hotunui was so angry and ashamed at this that he left,[6] an event known to Tainui as 'Te Mara-tuahu-kau' (the cultivation mounded without result).[7] Mihi-rāwhiti was pregnant at the time and Hotonui instructed her to name the child in memory of his expulsion: Maru-tūahu ('crushed mound') if it was a boy and Pare-tūahu if it was a girl. In the end she had a boy.[8][6]
Hotunui settled among the Uri o Pou / Ngāti Pou at Whakatīwai on the Hauraki Gulf, where he married a local woman.[9][6] According to Pei Te Hurinui Jones, she was a sister of the local chief Te Whata (or Te Whatu). According to a Hauraki Ngāti Maru account reported by John White, she was Waitapu, daughter of Rua-hiore.[6]
Journey of Maru-tūahu
When Maru-tūahu grew up, he set off for Hauraki in search of his father. Along the way he was met by two daughters of Te Whata, Hine-rehua (or Hine-urunga) and Pare-moeahu, who both instantly decided that they wanted to marry him. After they had discovered who he was, Pare-moeahu ran to Hotonui and told him of his son's arrival. Maru-tūahu subsequently married her. According to Pei Te Hurinui Jones Hine-rehua married Hotunui's other son Pākā,[6] but Ngāti Maru tradition says that she also married Maru-tūahu.[4]
Family and descendants
Hotunui and Mihi-rāwhiti had three children:
- Manu-kōpiri, who was born in South Taranaki,[6] and settled along the Whanganui River.[4]
- Maru-wharanui, who was born in South Taranaki, and whose descendants, if any, remained there.[6] The Ngāti Maru of Hauraki say that he is the ancestor of the Ngāti Maru of Taranaki,[4] but they themselves say he had a different parentage.[citation needed]
- Maru-tūahu, who married Pare-moeahu, daughter of Te Whata and had sons:
- Tama-te-pō, ancestor of Ngāti Rongoū
- Tama-te-rā, ancestor of Ngāti Tamaterā
- Whanaunga, ancestor of Ngāti Whanaunga
- According to Ngāti Maru tradition, Maru-tūahu also married Te Whata's elder daughter, Hine-rehua, and had Te Ngako or Te Ngakohua, ancestor of the Hauraki Ngāti Maru[4]
Hotunui and Waitapu had one son:
- Pākā, who married Hine-rehua, daughter of Te Whata, according to Pei Te Hurinui Jones, and had a daughter, Kahu-reremoa, who herself married Taka-kōpiri, son of Rangitahi, of Te Arawa,[6] whose daughter Tū-parahaki was an ancestor of Ngāti Hauā.[10]