Te Keepa Te Rangi-pūawhe

Te Keepa Te Rangi-pūawhe (?–1905) was a chief of the Te Arawa iwi Tūhourangi, based at Tarawera near Rotorua. In the wars of the 1860s he supported the government.

In 1869, as a major in the New Zealand Militia, he helped lead a contingent of the Te Arawa tribe, which pursued the rebel leader Te Kooti into the Urewera region.

In the 1870s Te Keepa became a critic of the government’s land purchase policies and the Native Land Court. He supported the formation of tribal runanga or "native committees". These would make their own judgments about land title, and control the process of land alienation.

After the wars the Tūhourangi tribe prospered through the expanding tourist trade. Many of the most popular thermal and scenic areas, including the world-famous "pink and white terraces", lay on their land at Tarawera. This came to a sudden end with the calamitous Tarawera eruption on 10 June 1886. More than 100 people were killed and the terraces were destroyed. Tuhourangi were forced to take refuge with their relatives at Rotorua and elsewhere. Te Keepa strongly protested at the miserly aid given to the refugees by the government. Tūhourangi never regained their leading position in the Rotorua tourist trade, and with further land loss they became economically and socially marginalised.

Later Te Keepa supported the Kotahitanga movement, which sought implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi, the reversal of Māori land laws and a degree of self-government through a Kotahitanga - Maori Parliament. He died in 1905, and was buried with full military honours.

Adapted from the DNZB biography by Steven Oliver

• Read the full biography in Te Ara Biographies

Te Keepa Te Rangi-pūawhe

He rangatira a Te Keepa Te Rangi-pūawhe (?-1905) nō te iwi o Tūhourangi o Te Arawa, i noho mai ki Tarawera, pātata ki Rotorua. Ka whawhai ia mō te kāwanatanga i ngā pakanga o te tekau tau atu i 1860. Tae rawa ki te tau 1869 kua eke a Te Keepa hei meiha i Ngā Hōia ā-Iwi o Niu Tīreni; ko ia hoki te kaingārahu o tētahi ope taua o Te Arawa i kuhu ki Te Urewera ki te aru i a Te Kooti, te kaingārahu o ngā tāngata whakakeke ki te kāwanatanga.

I te tekau tau atu i 1870, ko Te Keepa tērā kei te arohae i ngā hokonga whenua a te kāwanatanga, tapiri atu ko ngā mahi a te Kōti Whenua Māori. Ka tautoko ia i te whakatūnga o ngā runanga ā-iwi hei whakatau taitara mō ngā whenua, hei whakahaere hoki i te rironga o ngā whenua.

I te mutunga o ngā pakanga, ka hua a Tūhourangi i te manaaki tūruhi ka taetae mai ki tō rātou rohe. Ko te maha o ngā wāhi puia, ngā wāhi mīharo hoki pērā i “ngā tūāpapa māwhero, tea”, kei runga i ngā whenua o Tūhourangi i Tarawera. Kotia ohoreretia rā ngā tauhokohoko a te iwi i te hūnga o Tarawera i te 10 o Hune i te tau 1886. Neke atu i te 100 tāngata i mate, whakangarohia ngā tūāpapa. Ka rere mōrehu a Tūhourangi ki ō rātou whanaunga i Rotorua me ētahi atu rohe. Ka tautohe rawa a Te Keepa ki te kāwanatanga kia nui atu ngā āwhina ki ngā mōrehu o te hū o Tarawera. Kore rawa a Tūhourangi i eke ki taua tūranga teitei o mua i roto i ngā kaupapa manaaki tūruhi i te takiwā o Rotorua. Ki te tāpirihia tēnei mate ki te rironga tonutanga o ō rātou whenua, i te mutunga atu, ka paheke te ōhanga, te noho me te wairua o te iwi.

Taihoa, ka tautoko a Te Keepa i te rōpū Kotahitanga, e whai ana kia whakamanatia te Tiriti o Waitangi, kia hurihia ngā ture e pā ana ki ngā whenua Māori, kia riro hoki ko te Māori tonu hei kāwanatanga mōna ki ētahi taumata, mā roto i tētahi Pāremata Māori, arā mā te Kotahitanga. I tōna matenga i te tau 1905, ka ūhia ngā hōnore hōia ki runga ki a ia.