In his 1929 manuscript on the history of the Marutūahu peoples, Tukumana Te Taniwha states that he was 11 years old when he attended the great hākari-feast hosted by Ngāti Pāoa for the iwi of Hauraki at Whakatīwai, Firth of Thames, in 1874. Tukumana was, therefore, born in 1863, the son of Reihana Poto and Karukino Te Taniwha both of Ngāti Whanaunga and Ngāti Maru.  His sub-tribal primary affiliations were Ngāti Puku, Ngāti Rangiaohia, Te Mateawa, Ngāti Pākira and Ngāti Te Aute.  

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Tukumana was known by a number of names including Tukumana Reihana. He initially took his father's first name as a surname, as was the custom of the time. Later, however, he took 'Te Taniwha' as his surname, a name he inherited from his mother's family. Tukumana's mother, Karukino, was the daughter of the great Ngāti Whanaunga and Hauraki leader, Te Hōreta Te Taniwha. She was also a half-sister of another deeply influential leader of Ngāti Whanaunga, and Hauraki generally, Hori Ngākapa Te Whanaunga.

 

And so Tukumana was the grandson and nephew respectively of two of the most important Hauraki leaders of their time and he was raised in the context of this leadership and rangatiratanga. It is most likely that the bestowal of the name 'Te Taniwha' upon him was to prepare him for a leadership role. in his iwi.  He also bore the name 'Taiwīwī', another ancestral name from his mother's people.

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Ngāti Whanaunga resided in numerous areas throughout Hauraki, particularly in Wharekawa (western Hauraki), in Kōpū-Kirikiri (south of Thames township) and at Te Kouma Harbour (Coromandel). Ngāti Whanaunga also have interests in numerous other areas including some of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, Whangamatā and at Tāmaki. 

 

According to Tukumana, Wharekawa had been fought over for many years by various iwi. The crew of the Tainui canoe had originally erected an altar there and conducted ceremonies to implant mana, that is, to gain authority and rights to the land. Two descendants of the Tainui crew, Hotunui and his son Marutūahu (the ancestors of the Marutūahu confederation of tribes) made their home in the Wharekawa district. The rights were maintained by Marutūahu and Ngāti Whanaunga. Finally, Ngāti Puku (Tukumana's subtribe) took up the cause of maintaining these rights, particularly those of Ngāti Whanaunga, who had always maintained a presence at Wharekawa. 

 

Living among tribes that owed nominal allegiance to the King movement, Tukumana was drawn into its affairs. He was a supporter of the King movement and was opposed to Pākehā settlement within the Rohe Potae block, and in 1903 he unsuccessfully petitioned the government to exclude his lands from the boundaries of the recently promulgated Waikato district. By 1917 he was a member of the lower house of Te Kauhanganui. He continued in that position until 1920.

 

In his youth, Tukumana was a gifted student of the histories and traditions of his people. Benefiting from the legacy of Te Horeta, he became an exponent of the traditions of all Marutūahu people and of Ngāti Whanaunga in particular. In 1925 he began to write down some of his knowledge of Marutūahu, prompted by a proposal to shift Hotunui, the great meeting house of the Parehauraki people, to the Auckland Museum in an attempt to preserve it. Tukumana attended a large hui convened at Parawai, near Thames, on 7 March 1925, as spokesman for Ngāti Whanaunga. The people agreed that the house needed to be preserved. Parehauraki were not keen to sell the house and agreed to the proposal of the Auckland ethnologist George Graham that Hotunui be shifted to the museum for safe custody on their behalf. The house was eventually transferred to the museum in 1929.

 

It is believed that it was on this occasion that Graham met Tukumana. Certainly, it was after this that Tukumana began to record Marutūahu histories and traditions. The earliest, and perhaps the most valuable, was entitled simply 'Marutuahu'. Tukumana produced further manuscripts and contributed to papers by George Graham. These writings are of enormous value to the Marutūahu–Parehauraki peoples. Parts have been published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society. Other parts were incorporated into the book Tainui by Leslie Kelly.

 

Tukumana married Edith (Ira) Bennett on 5 March 1915 at Auckland. They had no children but fostered many; some lived permanently at Waimangō and others lived there at intervals. Two of the children, Haunui Tukumana Royal of Ngati Tamaterā and Ngati Maru/Whanaunga, and Ira Tukumana (later Renata) of Ngāti Whanaunga and Ngāti Maru, succeeded to Tukumana's land at Waimangō. Haunui and Ira were grandson and daughter respectively of Edith (Ira) Bennett, Tukumana's wife.

 

When Haunui grew up he wanted to marry Meri Te Oi Tamehana (Thompson), a Ngā Puhi woman who was training to be a nurse at Thames Hospital. Tukumana, however, was not happy with this. He still felt greatly aggrieved by past conflicts with Ngā Puhi including the death of his tupuna Pokere at the hands of Ngā Puhi and the treacherous attack by Hongi Hika on the great Marutūahu pā, Te Tōtara, in 1821. Haunui and Meri eventually married, however, and the old man treated their children as his own grandchildren. These people subsequently became known as Te Whānau-a-Haunui.

 

Tukumana appears briefly in Henry Ashby's small book The history and legends of the western coast of the Hauraki Gulf (1963). Ashby describes how Tukumana maintained a stable of horses at Waimangō and in 1885 won a racing cup with a horse named Kotiroa. He lived in 'a well-built European house' and was termed 'a very progressive Maori.' In his last years, a journalist, Chris Barlow, visited him at Waimango, and later published an article and accompanying photograph. It includes the following quote: 'I shall be with the land always.'

 

Tukumana died on 28 March 1941 at Waimangō, and was buried at the Waimango cemetery. His wife had predeceased him. He was mourned by all the Hauraki tribes, who knew that with his departure they had lost a wealth of knowledge that could never be recovered.

 

This is an edited version of an essay written by Charles Royal and published by Te Ara - The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. For the original entry, see below:

 

Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal. 'Te Taniwha, Tukumana', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1996. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3t20/te-taniwha-tukumana (accessed 3 August 2018)

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Notes

In a court case concerning Tikirahi pā, near Kōpū, Thames, Tukumana states that he was born in Kirikiri, near Kōpū, in 1864. (See Tukumana Folder 4, in private possession.)