Herea Te Heuheu Tukino I

Herea or Hereara (–1820), later known as Te Rangi-māheuheu and Te Heuheu Tūkino I, was a Māori rangatira of the Ngāti Tūrū-makina, Ngāti Parekāwa, and Ngāti Te Koherā hapū and paramount chief of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi of the region around Lake Taupō, New Zealand, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Herea succeeded his father as head of Ngāti Tūrū-makina in the late eighteenth century. He led a force during the Tūhoe–Ngāti Tūwharetoa War. Afterwards, he was one of the candidates to succeed as paramount chief after the death of Te Rangi-tua-mātotoru. Initially, a distant cousin, Te Wakaiti, was the preferred candidate, but he outraged the senior chiefs of Ngāti Tūwharetoa with his arrogant treatment of them and they encouraged Herea to take the position instead, favouring him because of his connections with Ngāti Maniapoto of Waikato. After training in the Rangitoto Ranges, he became a master of the pouwhenua and used his newfound skill to defeat the hapū of Ngāti Te Rangiita and then to take the paramount chieftainship by defeating Te Wakaiti in single combat.

As paramount chief he based himself at Waitahanui pa on the Tongariro River delta, where he slowly built up his prestige and authority. He died around 1820 and, after a brief pause, his son Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II succeeded him as paramount chief. His descendants, the Te Heuheu family, continue to hold the paramount chieftainship of Ngāti Tūwharetoa today.

Life Herea was born in the mid-eighteenth century. and a member of Aitanga a Huruao, the senior hapū of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, as well as Ngāti Awa in the Bay of Plenty. He was also a relative of the Ngāti Te Rangiita and Ngāti Hinemihi hapū of Tūwharetoa. Herea’s mother, Parewairere, belonged to Ngāti Maniapoto.

The name Te Heuheu When Te Rangi-pūmamao of Ngāti Parekāwa died in the territory of Ngāti Maniapoto, the local people wanted to take the body back to his home for burial, but the journey proved too hard, so they buried him in a cave at Kaiwha on the northwestern corner of Lake Taupō. Several years later, Herea led a group to Kaiwha to search for Te Rangi-pūmamao’s bones. This proved to be a difficult task because they were hidden by brushweed (māheuheu) that had grown up around the cave, but they found them and took them to Waihaha, where they were reburied in Oruawaikaha Cave. When Herea’s wife Te Rangiaho, who was pregnant at the time, was told about this, she declared that she would name the child Te Heuheu, in honour of the brushweed that had protected Te Rangi-pūmamao. At the same time, she gave Herea the name Te Rangi-māheuheu, shortened to Te Heuheu, and the name has become the family name of his descendants. Iwikau Te Heuheu Tukino III, the third member of the Te Heuheu line to hold the paramount chieftainship of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, from 1846 to 1862, and the only one to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. Pāpaka, who married Pikihuia and was killed at Haowhenua by Te Āti Awa in 1834 Herea and Tokotoko had a son and a daughter: Karihi Te Kehakeha aka Tōkena Te Kehakeha aka Tōkena Kerēhi, who married Erina Te Huri. Hoko Pātena aka Pātena Hokopakake aka Pātena Kerehi Hurihia, who married Te Tauri, grandson of Te Rangi-tua-mātotoru. Other children include: Manuhiri, who was killed attacking Maungawharau, near Waimārama.