Maikuku

Maikuku, the first daughter of Uenuku-kuare and Kareariki, was raised as a puhi at Ruarangi near Waitangi. Her protected home was a cave below the village. News of her beauty and fame reached Huatakaroa of Tokatoka at Whangaroa and so he came to court her. They married and one of the descendants of their union, Te Ra, named his hapu after his father,"Te Uriohua (takaroa)". The children of Maikuku and Hua provide genealogical links to all the major hapu from Hokianga to the Bay of Islands, to Whangarei, and to Whangaroa. They include Ngai Tawake, Ngati Tautahi and Ngai Takotoke, prominent claimants to Ngawha together with Te Uriohua.

Aspiring suitors sought Maikuku in vain, until a young Hua (Huatakaroa) one of those knights of old, very bold and very brave. He is from Whangaroa. His pa is Taratara and his line of descent is from Ruanui. He was soon to learn of a beautiful un-betrothed chieftain living in Waitangi, Maikuku. He set off immediately to woo the beautiful Maikuku. He went by way of the Kerikeri river and to Waitangi where he came upon dolphins making their way to Maikuku’s place, and answering Maikuku’s calls with their own cries (tangi) of pleasurable expectations. When the dolphins got to Maikuku, Hua was right behind them. Hua was not only an outstanding warrior but he was also a fine handsome and upstanding man so much so that the dolphins were no match for the daring adventurer. Hua told Maikuku that he had come because he had heard of her beauty and now he knew that she was certainly as beautiful as he had been told. Maikuku accepted Hua and he stayed with her. In the morning Maikuku told Hua that they would have to go to the marae above to meet her people, were they gathered and accepted him.

Maikuku and Hua left the cave to begin domestic life together in a house called Ruarangi. Hua placed their first child under supernatural protection in the tohi (ritual rites for the new-born), naming him, Te Ra, after the sun which shone into the cave as it rose in the east.

The marriage of Maikuku and Hua endured, though they had their share of troubles. They had six children a large family for those days, and also raised a grandson, but they suffered an estrangement from one of their daughters (Hauhaua) which took many years to heal. Recognised equally as rangatira among Maikuku’s people, they lived mainly inland on the grades of Pouerua but ranged widely from the base visiting Waitangi in the summer for seafood and relaxation. In their declining years at Parahirahi near Kaikohe, after abdicating their rangatiratanga to Te Ra, recognised today as a key ancestors respectively of Ngati Rahiri hapu and Ngapuhi iwi.

The name Waitangi can be translated as, “Crying waters”, “Lamenting waters”, or “The sound of (falling) waters”. Tribal experts now deceased (Hemi Rihari & Connie Burling) associate it variously with the sounds made by Maikuku’s guardian taniwha, Maikuku lamenting the breach of tapu, and the sound of the Haruru falls. Whatever its exact reference, Waitangi has long been a name and a place which resonates through Niu Tireni (New Zealands) history.

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