Te Rautakitahi o Tūhoe ki Ōrākau

Ko Te Rautakitahi o Tūhoe ki Ōrākau, he kōrero whakahirahira nā Tā William Te Rangiua ‘Pou’ Temara i te reo Māori mō tā Tūhoe whai wāhi ki te pae o te riri ki Ōrākau i ngā pakanga o Aotearoa. He mea tuhi te kōrero nei i te reo Māori, ā, e ai ki ngā kōrero tuku iho, ka pātai a Tā Pou i ngā pātai uaua mō ngā tāne me ngā wāhine i haere ki te tautoko i a Ngāti Maniapoto i te pakanga e kīia nei ko Ōrākau. Ko wai mā rātau? He aha rātau i haere ai? He aha tā rātau mahi i reira? He aha hoki te hononga ki a Ngāti Maniapoto?

Koia ēnei, ko ngā whakaaro o Tā Pou, otirā ko ngā whakaaro o te tangata nō Ruatāhuna, te wāhi nō reira te nuinga o ngā uri o Tūhoe i whai wāhi ai ki te pakanga ki Ōrākau, he kōrero tuku iho nā ōna koroua me ōna kuia i a ia e tipu ake ana. E kōrero ana ia mō te taenga atu o Rewi Maniapoto ki Ruatāhuna i te tau 1862 me te tau 1864 ki te tono ki a Tūhoe mēnā āe rānei ka whai wāhi rātau ki te āwhina i a Ngāti Maniapoto me te Kīngitanga. Ka kōrerohia ngā toa, ngā wāhine, me ngā tamariki i haere, kātahi ka kōrerohia te āhua o te mana me te rongo o te hunga o Tūhoe i te hokinga atu i muri mai i te haukerekerehia o rātau i Ōrākau. Kei roto hoki i te pukapuka nei ngā tātai whakapapa o te hunga o Tūhoe i haere ai ki Ōrākau. Kua whakataurite a Tā Pou i āna kōrero ki ngā kōrero a ētahi o te hunga kaituhi Pākehā pēnei i a Elsdon Best rātau ko Judith Binney, ko Vincent O’Malley.

He kōrero mana nui, he kōrero hou hoki mō tēnei o ngā pakanga o Aotearoa i tuhia rā e tētahi o ngā tino kaituhi Māori o te motu.

Te Rautakitahi o Tūhoe ki Ōrākau is an account of Tūhoe involvement in the battle of Ōrākau in the New Zealand wars by Sir William Te Rangiua ‘Pou’ Temara. Written in te reo Māori and based on oral sources, Tā Pou asks the big questions about the Tūhoe men and women who went to fight with Ngāti Maniapoto at Ōrākau. Who were they? Why did they go and what did they do there? What was the nature of their alliance with Ngāti Maniapoto?

Tā Pou gives this account as a man from Ruatāhuna, where most of the Tūhoe who went to Ōrākau came from, through the stories told to him by his grandfather, great-grandmother and other kuia and koroua when he was young. He tells the story of Rewi Maniapoto visiting Tūhoe at Ruatāhuna in 1862 and 1864 to ask if Tūhoe would become involved in the war to help Ngāti Maniapoto and the King movement. He recounts the warriors, women and children who went, and then tells what happened to their authority and reputation in Tūhoe after the party returned, defeated, from Ōrākau. The book includes significant Tūhoe whakapapa for those who went to Ōrākau. Tā Pou compares his account of events to those of Pākehā writers like Elsdon Best, Judith Binney and Vincent O’Malley.

This is a major new account of a key episode in the New Zealand wars written by one of our leading Māori thinkers and writers.