IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS
Te Rangi Pikinga belonged to the Ngāti Apa people of Whanganui
and Taranaki and was born around 1800. Her mother was Te Rangi
Kopinga. She had a brother named Te Arapata and Te Arapata Hiria
was her elder sister.
When Te Rangi Pikinga was a young woman she was captured by a taua
party led by Te Rauparaha of Ngāti Toa. Te Rauparaha's nephew Te
Rangihaeata took a fancy to Pikinga and their subsequent marriage
effected a peace treaty between Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Toa. The
marriage laid the foundations of Ngāti Toa occupation of the Kapiti
Coast.
As a peace-bride Te Rangi Pikinga's marriage maintained and
secured the occupation rights and mana of Ngāti Apa and provided
mutual protection of her tribe's Rangitikei and Manawatu lands. In
this sense,Te Rangi Pikinga was a symbolic '
pou' between Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Toa. Te Rangihaeata would
refer to her as his 'pou rohe' meaning she was a critical link
between the tribes. Indeed, on one occasion Te Rangi Pikinga agreed
to stay at Rangitikei as a boundary post to protect Ngāti Apa at
Whangaehu.1
Te Rangi Pikinga shared the stormy life of Te Rangihaeata, whom
she survived. He was exiled to Poroutawhao, between Levin and
Foxton, where he died in 1855.2 It is not known when Te Rangi
Pikinga died, only that she lived out her last years at
Poroutawhao. It is thought that Te Rangi Pikinga was deceased by
1868.3
NM
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