Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi

Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi (died ), also known as Betty Nicoll, was a New Zealand leader, trader and innkeeper. She descended from the iwi (tribes) of Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Mutunga and Te Āti Awa. She is known for swimming 11km (7 miles), with her baby daughter strapped to her back, to raise the alarm after a war party from the south attacked her tribe. She was one of only five women to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, and was known as a woman of great mana. In later life, she and her husband kept an inn at Paekākāriki.

Early life Te Rau-o-te-rangi was the daughter of Te Matoha, Ngāti Toa chief, and Te Hautonga, of Ngāti Mutunga and Te Āti Awa. Her birthplace and date of birth are unknown, but she is thought to have been born either at Kaweka, her mother's village near Urenui, or Tutaerere, south of Kawhia Harbour. In the early 1820s, she took part in Te Rauparaha's migration, a long expedition from Kāwhia to Kapiti Island, and her father fought against the Waikato Tainui iwi. She is reported to have said:

From around 1832 or 1833 Te Rau-o-te-rangi lived on Kapiti Island with her Pākehā husband, John Nicoll, who was a former whaler. He may have been her second husband. New Zealand composer Michael Norris wrote a solo piece for piano called Rauoterangi, intended to evoke "the dance of light" on the stretch of sea named for Te Rau-o-te-rangi, which was premiered by pianist Emma Sayers at the New Zealand School of Music in December 2019.