Retimana Te Mania

 

Ngāti Paoa, Te Akitai

Iwi map - Retimana Te Mania IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS

Retimana Te Mania of the Te Akitai people occupied lands in the Manukau district. Retimana was associated with kāinga at Mangere, Papakura, Tuakau and Pukekohe until the commencement of the New Zealand Waikato land-wars.1 He and his people together with Mohi Te Ahi a Te Ngau joined with King Tawhiao and the Māori Kingitanga movement in 1863 to protect ancestral lands from confiscation by the Crown.2

Retimana Te Mania and his people did have land unfairly confiscated as noted by Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi in an 1865 petition to the Crown. Tamihana took the opportunity to spell out that Māori had done no wrong yet, their lands were being taken and given to settlers or kept for Crown use. The military presence and soldier redoubts on the Waikato River created fear in the community, and a Magistrates Court in Māori communities created confusion. Tamihana's petition shows that these things were not requested nor sanctioned by Māori.3

In late life, Retimana lived at Pukaki, near present-day Mangere, and Ihumatao near what is now Auckland International Airport.

NM

  1. ‘Native Compensation Court’, Daily Southern Cross, vol XXI, issue 2422, 25 April 1865, p 5 Papers Past and ‘Compensation Court.-Monday. Before F.D. Fenton,Chief Judge; and J. Mackay, Esq.,’ Daily Southern Cross, vol XXI, issue 2440, 16 May 1865, p 5, Papers Past, accessed 2 March 2010. These articles provide a reference to the decline of Te Akitai numbers into the low 30s in 1865. Read further for references to the complexities of making claims to traditional lands under new ownership.
  2. Tūhuatahi Tui Adams and Paul Meredith. 'Ngāti Maniapoto - The Māori King movement', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 4 March 2009, accessed 25 February 2010.
  3. ‘Petition of William Thompson Tarapipipi’, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, vol XXIV, issue 98, 15 August 1865, p 4, Papers Past, accessed 2 March 2010.
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