Hine-i-tūrama: Her Extraordinary Life

Ngāti Whakaue

The respected Ngāti Whakaue woman, Hine-i-tūrama Ngātiki, was brought up at Ōhinemutu by her Te Amohau whanaunga (relatives) in the early 1800s.

When she was still very young, she was betrothed to the Danish trader Phillip Tapsell who, in his mid-50s, was some 40 years older! The marriage was part of a plan to keep the Tapsell family safe. As a relative of Ngāi Te Rangi leader Tupaea, Hine-i-tūrama and her family (which included the Tapsells) would not be killed by either Ngāi Te Rangi or Te Arawa, who were at war with each other at the time. Hine-i-tūrama and her husband even went to see Tūpaea (a Ngāi Te Rangi chief) to try and bring peace between the two parties.

The family were kept safe for a while, but other fighting soon put them back in danger. When Haerehuka of Te Arawa murdered Te Hunga of Ngāti Hauā, the chief Waharoa went looking for utu (retribution) by attacking and destroying the Tapsell house and store at Maketū. Ngāti Hauā tried to take Hine-i-tūrama as a slave, but she was saved by the wife of Ngāti Hauā leader Murupara.

The family were safely reunited, and they quickly fled to Mokoia Island for protection. Hine-i-tūrama was pregnant at the time, and it was a very tough journey to reach safety. It was on Mokoia that her son was born. He was named Retireti (Retreat) in memory of the family’s terrible flight from Maketū.

Sometime after the attack, the Tapsells returned to Maketū and sailed to Sydney to buy a new cargo of trade goods. They settled at Whakatāne on their return, and it was there that they were officially married by Catholic missionary Bishop Pompallier who also baptised their six children.

Once again, Hine-i-tūrama was involved in an act of peace-making when she refused to take part in the revenge killing of a woman who had been captured by Te Arawa as retribution for an attempted kidnapping by Ngāti Hauā.

In 1864, Hine-i-tūrama left Whakatāne to visit her daughter Ewa who, with her husband Robert Hooper, was with the King movement at Ōrākau in the Waikato.

Hine-i-tūrama and Ewa became involved in the fighting there on 2 April 1864, where they were both killed and buried on the battlefield along with other Māori casualties.

In 1978, a memorial to Hine-i-tūrama was unveiled at Wharehau Urupā to remember this remarkable woman.

This story comes from the original Great Te Arawa Stories website created by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru (NPeW) Education Trust in 2018. To ensure consistency, minimal updates were made to the text before it was transferred to this new site.