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NGAPUHI ORIGINS
“...the principal tribes with their sub tribes occupied defined areas with fixed boundaries. The love for
their own territory was overwhelming as tribal history was written over its hills and vales, its rivers,
streams and lakes upon its cliffs and shores. The earth and caves holding the bones of illustrious
tupuna and dirges and laments teem with reference to the love lavished upon the natural features of
their homelands” (Buck, 1962, p. 379).
Ngapuhi tradition identifies with three waka; Matawhaorua, Ngatokimatawhaorua and Mataatua, and
the three principal tupuna Kupe, Nukutawhiti and Rahiri. The eponymous ancestor Rahiri is most
associated with Ngapuhi. The collective hapu uphold and maintain Ngapuhi customs and practices,
traditions and rituals, whakapapa and histories. Tribally, hapu shared the common ownership of land
but did not own any particular part of it. “Tribal mana (prestige) is identified with tribal land
holdings” (Meyer, 1980, p. 37).
WHAKAPAPA
Blood relationships were described by Ngata (1940, p. 166) as being central in determining whanau,
hapu and iwi alliances. Oral evidence of genealogy, occupation and ownership of land were dominant
factors in those alliances. The individual recitation of whakapapa connects and identifies all
relationships based on blood kinship and common ancestry. Patu Hohepa (as cited in Carter, 1998, p.
38) describes whakapapa as “being reliant on how the individual is placed within a sequential order of
tupuna.” Barlow (1993, p. 173) asserted that the preservation of whakapapa, idioms and narration was
of paramount importance to the relationships between people and hapu. Adults were expected to have
an extensive knowledge of one‟s ancestors to pass on to successive generations.
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