Wiremu Nera Te Awaitaia

 

Ngāti Mahanga, Ngāti Haua (? - 1866)

Iwi map - Wiremu Nera Te Awaitaia IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS

Te Awaitaia was born probably in the late eighteenth century. His mother was Parehina, and his father was Te Kata. It is said that Te Awa-i-taia had nine wives, including Rangihikitanga, Hinu, Kararaina, Pirihira and Raimipaha.1

Te Awaitaia came under the influence of the Wesleyan missionary William White, while White was setting up mission stations along the Kawhia coast.2 He became patron of the Kawhia station, which was built on Ngāti Mahanga land and is attributed with converting Ngāti Mahanga ki Whaingaroa Maori to Christianity. He was baptised at Kawhia by the resident Wesleyan missionary, James Wallis, on 17 January 1836 and took the name Wiremu Nera (William Naylor).

Wiremu Nera Te Awaitaia signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 11 April 1840, when it was brought to Whaingaroa by the CMS missionary Robert Maunsell.3 He died at Kawhia on 27 April 1866.

 

NM

  1. Gary Scott, 'Te Awa-i-taia, Wiremu Nera ? - 1866', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007, accessed 2 March 2010.
  2. M. B. Gittos, 'White, William 1794 - 1875'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007, accessed 2 March 2010.
  3. John Wilson, ‘Government and nation – The origins of Nationhood’, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 3 March 2009, accessed 24 February 2010.
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