IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS
It is not known when Ihaka Whaanga was born, but he died on
December 14 at Mahia in 1875 and is buried at the southern tip of
the Mahia Peninsula, marked by a memorial stone.
Whaanga was the youngest child of Te Ratau and Kainga and the
only survivor of a raid that claimed the lives of his parents and
five brothers. Married three times to Kahungunu women from
influential families, he lived the origins of his ancestor Te
Huki's saying Te Kupenga a Te Huki (the net of Te Huki)
which means to maintain unity and peace by marrying within the
tribe.
In the 1820s, Whaanga had met his first Pākehā trader
touting muskets and powder for dressed flax. They arrived at Mahia
in the vessel Fanny and were regular visitors during the
1820s. Ihaka is the Māorified name for Issac, a name
presumably taken after converting to Christianity. It is not known
when he converted to the Mormon faith, but his son Hirini did take
a sea-voyage to Utah in 1894 travelling aboard the San
Francisco steamer.1
Since, the Whaanga name is synonymous with rise of Mormonism in
Hawkes Bay. By 1898, the church claimed they have 4,000 members,
most of whom were Māori.2
Whaanga had an open attitude to trading and the settlement of
Pākehā in Kahungunu and often lent his mana to the Crown. He took
an appointment as an assessor under the Native Circuit Courts Act
1858 for the princely salary of £30 per annum and was expected to
enforce the law and carry out the duties of a local magistrate.
Whaanga agreed to large land purchases by the Government, perhaps
to demonstrate support for the Crown, but not without protest from
East Coast Māori leaders such as Wi Pere and others of
Rongowhakaata who challenged Whaanga's right to sell.3
Three years before he died, Whaanga was presented with a sword
of honour by the Crown as a reward for Ngāti Kahungunu campaigns
against the Hauhau forces and Te Kooti Arikirangi. In 1874, he was
decorated with the New Zealand War medal for service to the
Crown.4
NM
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