The Battle of Kokowai was a major battle fought between the Ngaiterangi and Ngati Ranginui Maori iwi (tribes) of New Zealand which saw the Ngati Ranginui iwi displaced from Mount Mauao. The battle is variously dated between 1625 and 1750. The outcome was to completely alter the political structure and regime of the Tauranga Moana region. Prior to the battle Ngaiterangi and Ngati Ranginui were at an uneasy peace with each other.

Battle

The following recount is based primarily on Ngaiterangi mythology.

One day a group of Ngati Ranginui fishermen left Mount Mauao on a fishing expedition. A storm developed and their canoe was overturned. All the fishermen perished except Taraiwheke who made it to Maketu. Taraiwheke was the son of the Ngati Ranginui chief called Kinonui who lived on Mount Mauao. The next day a Ngaiterangi woman gathering shellfish discovered Taraiwheke.

Taraiwheke was suffering from the cold and exposure. After making him comfortable, the woman returned to the Ngaiterangi pa to fetch some food and clothing. She met her husband along the way and told him she had discovered Taraiwheke. After urging her to hurry and tell no one, he went to the beach and murdered Taraiwheke.

Meanwhile, the Ngati Ranginui iwi had assumed that all their fisherman had drowned in the storm. The Ngaiterangi wife concealed the killing until one day her husband beat her in full view of the village. She then revealed the true fate of Taraiwheke. Word of this eventually reached the Ngati Ranginui who immediately decided that they must seek revenge.

A party of Ngaiterangi were at Te Tumu cutting Toetoe for roof thatching when they were attacked and two of there members taken prisoner. The prisoners were Tuwhiwhia and his son Tauaiti. Tuwhiwhia was decapitated and his lifeless body placed in a canoe and floated down the Kaituna River to reveal it's grisly story to the Ngaiterangi residents downstream. Tauaiti was spared for a more prolonged and agonising death. His entire body was lacerated with the serrated edges of the Toetoe grass. During this torture Tauaiti cried out "Aue, he aha rawa taku he, kia penei ai he mate moku, akuanei te moana nei I hohonu, me hanga kia papaku I taku mokai Ia Kotorerua" - "Oh, what have I done to deserve this, this ocean though deep will be rendered shallow when my younger brother Kotorerua hears of this". This meant that his suffering was pale in comparison to the pain and suffering Ngati Ranginui would soon feel at the hands of his brother Kotorerua.

Kotorerua learned of his brothers fate and visited Putangimaru, a powerful Tohunga priest who had married his sister, to seek advice. It was with Putangimaru that Kotorerua devised a plan of assault against the Ngati Ranginui on Mount Mauao. The assault on Mauao would be simple, well planned, and brutal.

Kotorerua and a few warriors visited Kinonui, father of Taraiwhekethe and Ngati Ranginui chief on Mount Mauao, under the pretence of friendliness. Kotorerua gained entry by offering baskets containing Kokowai. The baskets in fact were just earth sprinkled with Kokowai on the surface, but fortunately it was night and the hosts could not see this. Kinonui and Kotorerua engaged for several hours in "courtly urbanity and matchless dissimulation covering a substratum of deadly hate". Chief Kinonui suspected that Kotorerua had an ulterior motive for his visit but played along until the opportunity arose to kill him.

As the evening progressed, sleeping arrangements were made for the visitors. As a precaution a sentry was posted at the entrance of the building so that when the visitors fell asleep their death would be quick and simple. Kotorerua was confined to the main sleeping house but his slaves were free to come and go as they pleased. Kotorerua ordered his slaves to check the moorings on their canoes. When they were returning they were told to gather firewood and quietly stack it against the doorway and at the sides of the house. Meanwhile he urged his hosts to stoke the fires as he feigned being cold. When enough wood was accumulated and the guard had become drowsy at his post, Kotorerua leapt from his position and ran outside where he sealed the door and set the firewood around the building alight, incinerating Chief Kinonui and his associates. In a short time the house became a blazing beacon.

Prior to this a Ngaiterangi taua War Party (under the leadership of Tapuiti) had landed around the base of the mountain in a narrow channel at the north of the mountain called Te Awaiti, undetected by the Ngati Ranginui and Waitaha who lived there. The young Kotorerua had indeed planned the attack to the last detail, for prior to his leaving Te Tumu in Maketu he had arranged with his forces to storm Mauao at moonrise and in order to identify one another, to display the broad and luminous leaf from the Wharangi tree upon their foreheads. This would mean that those who did not wear the symbol were regarded as enemies and treated as such.

Those who managed to escape the pa set off in their canoes. Unfortunately for them, prior to the attack all the canoes around the mountain had been disabled. Therefore when they set off their canoes they filled with water.

The only survivors were those who managed to swim across the harbour to the other side. By morning the Pa on Mount Mauao was totally destroyed. Such was the total and complete destruction of the settlement on Mauao that the summit was never reoccupied, although the slopes at the base were settled by some hapu of Ngaiterangi.

Battle summary

A Ngati Ranginui man, Taraiwheke, was killed by Ngaiterangi

The Ngati Ranginui retaliated by killing two Ngaiterangi men

The Ngaiterangi, under Kotorerua, responded by conquering the Ngati Ranginui Pa on Mauao.

Consequences

After the fall of the Ngati Ranginui pa on Mauau, the Ngaiterangi moved from Maketu to settle in Tauranga.

The conquest of other Ngati Ranginui settlements in the area consolidated the Ngaiterangi position in Tauranga. Kin links remained between the whanau of the two iwi.

Archaeological record

Mount Mauao, the site of the battle, has been subject to much archaeological over the past two centuries.

First observations of the archaeological landscape on Mauao were made by Colenso in 1838 when together with Rev W Williams he climbed to the top of the Mount gathering geological specimens. Colenso writes:

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"This hill has been strongly fortified. The labour bestowed on it has been immense yet it was taken and the slaughter was very great. It appears to have been inhabited to the very top. The sites of houses, the fireplaces and ancient excavations for stones and skulls still remain." (Phillips, 2003)
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A year later, J Bidwell, in his "Rambles in New Zealand", describes Mount Mauao and notes:

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"It was formerly a very strong Pa, a native fort or village, for the words mean either... The land sides are terraced from top to bottom, and must have been inhabited for a very long period, as the greater portion of the soil of which the terraces are formed is composed of cockle shells." (Bidwill, 1839)
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References and external sites

Bidwill, J. C. (1839). Rambles in New Zealand, pp. 7. Wellington, Orr

Wilson, J.A. (1907) The Story of Te Waharo: A Chapter in Early New Zealand History. pp. 204. Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs