Te Rāuangaanga

Te Rāuangaanga was a chief of the Ngāti Mahuta hapū of the Waikato tribe and principal war chief of the tribes of the Waikato region of northern New Zealand. He and his wife Parengāope, a high chieftainess of Ngati Koura, were the parents of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the first Māori monarch. Te Rāuangaanga was regarded as a great military tactician mainly deriving from the successful defense of his lands from the Taua (war party) of Pīkauterangi in the early 1790's. Pīkauterangi, of the coastal Tainui people, had formed a coalition of southern and eastern tribes to invade the Waikato. His army mustered some 10,000 warriors according to Maori oral tradition of the Waikato people. Te Rāuangaangaa was only able to muster some 3,000 warriors and yet was still able to defeat and repel the army facing him just south of Ōhaupō, halfway between present day Hamilton and Te Awamutu. The battle is believed to have occurred on a small ridge between two bodies of water. It is considered to be the largest battle ever to have been fought on the New Zealand mainland.

At the time of his son's birth Te Rauangaanga was famous as a fighting chief. In the summer of 1790 he had led combined Waikato and Maniapoto forces against the Ngati Toa chief Pikauterangi whom he defeated at the Battle of Hingakaka (near Ohaupo). This battle was said to have been the greatest ever fought on New Zealand soil. Some 20 years later Te Rauangaanga commanded 1,600 picked Waikato warriors who captured Te Rauparaha's pa at Hikuparea. Source: https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/te-wherowhero-potatau-or-potatau-i

Enei ka noho, Ka whakamau ake ki te ao uru, ’Ore he whanaunga, Ko te uri au o Pani, Momotu ki tawhiti, Ko Te Wera-a-Mahuta i, Tuwhera kau nei, Te rua i moe ai aku potiki, A Hinei-awhitia, I a Te Whetu-o-te-rangi, A Ngarangikamahea, I a Te Rauangaanga-o-Muriwhenua i, Mua ra e tama, To uru i panipania ki te wai tangihua i, To kiri mirimiri, Ki te renga horu no Parakauae i, No Ngamatakatau, No nga wai puaha rua i, Raro te Huataka, I waho te Houhou. Source: George Grey, Ko Nga Moteatea, Me Nga Hakirara O Nga Maori, (The Honorable Robert Stokes, 1853, Wellington) http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-GreKong-c1-276.html

Sources

1. An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (1966). Te Wherowhero, Potatau, or Potatau I by Walter Hugh Ross. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/te-wherowhero-potatau-or-potatau-i (accessed 15 May 2021).
2. George Grey, Ko Nga Moteatea, Me Nga Hakirara O Nga Maori, (The Honorable Robert Stokes, 1853, Wellington) http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-GreKong-c1-276.html
3. Te Awamutu Museum https://collection.tamuseum.org.nz/objects/2422/te-rauangaanga
4. WikiTree https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tuata-1
5. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Rauangaanga