Te Ruki Kawiti (1770s–1854) was a prominent Māori rangatira (chief). He and Hone Heke successfully fought the British in the Flagstaff War in 1845–46.[1]
Descended from Nukutawhiti and Rāhiri, he was born in the north of New Zealand into the Ngāti Hine hapu, one of the subtribes of Ngāpuhi. From his youth he was trained in leadership and warfare. He was present at the Battle of Moremonui in 1807 or 1808 when many Ngāpuhi were slaughtered by Ngāti Whātua. Almost twenty years later, in 1825, he was at the Battle of Te Ika a Ranganui when it was Ngāpuhi's turn to slaughter Ngāti Whātua in an act of utu or revenge. He took a number of Ngāti Whātua captive and refused to hand them over to Hongi Hika, preferring instead to return them to their own people to whom he was related.[2]
Kawiti initially refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, believing that it would inevitably lead to further European encroachment and the loss of Māori land. However he eventually yielded to pressure from his own people and signed the Treaty in May 1840, right at the top, above those chiefs who had signed earlier.[3]
However he soon grew disenchanted with British law and supported Hone Heke in his protests against British rule.[3] When in March 1845 Heke cut down the flag pole at Kororareka for the fourth time, thereby initiating the Flagstaff War, Kawiti, now in his seventies, created a diversion by attacking the town.
European accounts of the Flagstaff War are uncertain as to the deployment of the forces of Kawiti and Heke during the early stages of the war and those accounts are also uncertain as to how those two leaders made the strategic and tactical decisions in the conduct of the Flagstaff War. European accounts of the Flagstaff War present Hone Heke as the instigator of the war - indeed the Flagstaff War is sometimes called Hone Heke's Rebellion. However Kawiti was the senior rangatira and appears to have had a key role in the strategic decisions as to the design of the strengthened defences of Pene Taui's pā at Ohaeawai and the design and construction of the new pā that was build at Ruapekapeka to engage the British forces.
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The first major engagement of the Flagstaff War was the attack on Heke's Pā at Puketutu in May 1845.[4] While Heke occupied the pā itself, Kawiti and his men were skirmishing in the scrub and gullies around the pā. They successfully prevented the British from launching a coordinated attack on the pā but at quite a heavy cost in casualties. The British were unable to overcome the defences of the pā and retreat back to the Bay of Islands.
The next major engagement was the Battle of Te Ahuahu.[4] The contemporary European accounts of the battle describe it as being fought on 12 June 1845 near by Te Ahuahu and that it involve only the warriors of Hone Heke fighting the warriors of Tāmati Wāka Nene. However there are no detailed accounts of the action; Carlton (1874)[5] mentions "Heke committed the error (against the advice of Pene Taui) of attacking Walker [Tāmati Wāka Nene], who had advanced to Pukenui. With four hundred men, he attacked about one hundred and fifty of Walker's party, taking them also by surprise; but was beaten back with loss. Kahakaha was killed, Haratua was shot through the lungs".[6] In this battle Nene's warriors carried the day. Heke was severely wounded and did not rejoin the conflict until some months later, at the closing phase of the Battle of Ruapekapeka. On this account of the early engagements of the Flagstaff War, Kawiti appears to have made the better strategic decisions as to which battles to fight and which not to fight.
At the next engagement, the Battle of Ohaeawai Pā, Kawiti provoked the British into a disastrous frontal attack that cost them very heavy casualties. Having achieved his purpose he then evacuated the pā. Following this there was a lull of several months for peace negotiations that went nowhere.
Towards the end of 1845 the British launched a major expedition against Kawiti's new pā at Ruapekapeka. The pā successfully withstood the siege and bombardment for several weeks before Kawiti made a tactical withdrawal, luring some of the British troops into a complex ambush behind the pā.[1] After the battle of Ruapekapeka Kawiti and Heke were persuaded to end the rebellion by Tāmati Wāka Nene, who in turn insisted that the British accept the terms of Kawiti and Heke that they were to be unconditionally pardoned for their rebellion.[3]
After the conclusion of the Flagstaff War Kawiti went to live near by Henry Williams at Pakaraka. Kawiti was baptised by Henry Williams in 1853.[7] [8] He died at Waiomio, near Kawakawa on 5 May 1854, The meeting house and marae complex at Waiomio Caves are his memorial.
At the conclusion of the Flagstaff War the Hokianga and the Bay of Islands region was nominally under British influence, the fact that the Government's flag was not re-erected was symbolically very significant. Such significance was not lost on Henry Williams, who, writing to E.G. Marsh on 28 May 1846, stated that "the flag-staff in the Bay is still prostrate, and the natives here rule. These are humiliating facts to the proud Englishman, many of whom thought they could govern by a mere name."[9] [10]
Some argue that the Flagstaff War can be considered an inconclusive stalemate, as both sides wished the war to end, both gained somewhat from the fighting, and the situation more or less remained the same as it was before the outbreak of hostilities.[11] The opinion of the Henry Williams, who had counseled Kawiti to abandon the rebellion, was that the Ngāpuhi and the colonial government both agreed that each should let the other alone, so that Kawiti achieved peace on his terms. Henry Williams wrote to Hugh Carleton on 13 March 1854 in response to a earlier comment by Carleton as to the consequences of Kawiti having made peace with Governor Grey:
Upon the death of Kawiti, his son Maihi Paraone Kawiti who had been a missionary teacher at Mangakahia, succeed Kawiti as leader of the Ngāti Hine hapu.[13] Maihi Paraone Kawiti was a supporter of te ture (the law) and te whakapona (the gospel).[13] Deputations came to Maihi Paraone Kawiti from the Taranaki and Waikato iwi asking the Ngāpuhi to join the Māori King Movement; the reply from Maihi Paraone Kawiti was that the Ngāpuhi had no desire for a ‘Māori Kingi’ as ‘Kuini Wikitoria’ was their ‘Kingi'.[12] [13]
Maihi Paraone Kawiti, as a signal to Governor Thomas Gore Browne, that he did not follow his father’s path, arranged for the fifth flagpole to be erected at Kororareka; this occurred in January 1858 with the flag being named Whakakotahitanga, “being at one with the Queen.”[12] As a further symbolic act the 400 Ngāpuhi warriors involved in preparing and erecting the flagpole were selected from the ‘rebel’ forces of Kawiti and Heke – that is, Ngāpuhi from the hapu of Tāmati Wāka Nene (who had fought as allies of the British forces during the Flagstaff War), observed, but did not participate in the erection of the fifth flagpole. The restoration of the flagpole was presented by Maihi Paraone Kawiti was a voluntary act on the part of the Ngāpuhi that had cut it down in 1845, and they would not allow any other to render any assistance in this work.[12]
The legacy of Kawiti’s rebellion during the Flagstaff War was that during the time of Governor Grey and Governor Thomas Gore Browne, the colonial administrators were obliged to take account of opinions of the Ngāpuhi before taking actions in the Hokianga and Bay of Islands. The continuing symbolism of the fifth flagpole at Kororareka is that it exists because of the goodwill of the Ngāpuhi.