Te Pahi

Te Pahi (Tippahee in traditional orthography; died 1810) was a Māori tribal leader and traveller from New Zealand. He was from the Ngāpuhi iwi and lived in the Rangihoua Bay area of the Bay of Islands.

In 1805, Te Pahi decided to seek out Lieutenant Governor Philip Gidley King who, ten years earlier, had visited New Zealand from Norfolk Island. On arrival at Norfolk Island in 1805 Te Pahi found that King was no longer there. The superintendent of the island, Captain Piper, arranged for Te Pahi to continue his journey to Port Jackson where King had become Governor of New South Wales.

Te Pahi arrived in Port Jackson on 27 November 1805, and was received as an honoured guest by Captain Philip Gidley King, who presented him with a medal to recognise his visit. It was the first state gift presented to a Māori rangatira. King also presented Te Pahi with a prefabricated brick house which was built in his pā on Motu Apo Island and was the first permanent European-style house in New Zealand.

During the visit, Te Pahi also met Samuel Marsden, chaplain of New South Wales. and his pā on Motu Apo was stormed by crew from several whaling ships in retaliation in 1810. The whalers murdered many people, looted the island and destroyed houses, including the medal from King.

Te Pahi was wounded in the attack on his island but his death several weeks later was the result of other wounds he received in a conflict with Māori from the Whangaroa region over the Boyd affair.

The medal was stolen during the raid by the whalers in 1810, and its whereabouts remained unknown until 204 years later, in 2014 when an auction house in Sydney offered it for sale.

Ngāpuhi representatives and Te Pahi descendants intervened to try to return the taonga back to New Zealand, and they negotiated with Te Papa and the Auckland War Memorial Trust who jointly purchased the medal. Following its purchase at the 2014 auction in Sydney, it was put on display at Te Papa in 2017.