Tipuna
Nga mate tua tini o te wa haere, haere, haere.
Haere ki Hawaiki nui, Hawaiki roa, Hawaiki pamamao.
To those who have departed this world
Return to the homelands of our ancestors.
The name Ngati Pahauwera arose because in smoking the head of the ancestor Te Kahu O Te Rangi on his death, the beard caught alight. Hence the name Pahauwera or burnt beard. For some Maori Land Court allocations the name Ngati Pahauwera applied only to some descendants of Te Kahu O Te Rangi in other cases it applied to a wider descent grouping. For other Iwi purposes Ngati Pahauwera membership was not dependant on having a genealogy that descends from Te Kahu O Te Rangi. It is simply a name for those who descend from the related ancestors associated with the area. This confederation of hapu operated socially economically and politically for a common purpose.
In the Waitangi Tribunal hearings Awhi Winiata said her hapu was Ngati Mawete and her iwi was Ngati Pahauwera. Mawete lived many generations before Te Kahu o te rangi. Like Arapeta Takihi she refers to Ngati Pahauwera as our karangatanga. (What we were called) In the early Maori land court hearings witnesses referred to them selves as Ngati Pahauwera but connected themselves to the tribe through other ancestors including Tahu, Kahungunu, Tureia, Te Huki, Kurahikakawa, Hine te rangi and others. These genealogies did not include Te Kahu O Te rangi.
In 1851 Donald McLean recorded in regards to the Mohaka transaction that Paora Rerepu led in 197 hapu of Mohaka while Te Poihipi led in 20 hapu from the Waikare region. The different hapu of the Mohaka Waikare Block lost all of their lands and turangawaewae and the basis for an independent identity ceased causing them to identify themselves only as Ngati Pahauwera. Arapeta Takihi of the Hine te rangi hapu in the early Maori Land court hearings stated, “We did live together with Ngati Pahauwera and Rewis people of old. We used to go in the ope (war parties) of Ngati Pahauwera and were called by that name”. A petition to the government in 1884 signed by 61 members from different hapu of the area was signed off as “Heoi, na matou katoa na Ngati Pahauwera” “From all of us of Ngati Pahauwera”.
