Arawa

Arawa was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand. It was formed from a great tree in Rarotonga, a place “which lies on the other side of Hawaiki” (Grey 1956:107). The canoe belonged to Tama-te-kapua, son of Houmai-tawhiti. When his father and brother had been killed in a series of battles between his family and the high-chief Uenuku, Tama collected his possessions and family, kidnapped Ngatoro-i-rangi, the navigator of the Tainui canoe, and set out in the canoe Arawa. The Arawa landed in New Zealand near Cape Runaway. Following his death, Tama was buried on the summit of Mount Moehau at the northern tip of the Coromandel Range. The modern descendants of the Arawa settlers live in the Bay of Plenty Volcanic Plateau region.

Ancestral Beginnings

The Arawa waka tradition begins in Hawaiki with a woman by the name of Te Kuraimonoa. Because of her great beauty and spirituality she was admired by Pūhaorangi, a spiritual being who later adopted the form of a human and had a sexual liaison with her. This resulted in the birth of a son named Ohomairangi. Ohomairangi, in turn, became the eponymous ancestor of the Ngāti Ohomairangi people, who much later came to be known as the Te Arawa Confederation of Tribes.