The Gisborne District or Gisborne Region has a deep and complex history that dates back to the early 1300s. The region, on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island, has many culturally and historically significant sites that relate to early Māori exploration in the 14th century and important colonial events, such as Captain Cook's first landfall in New Zealand.
First arrivals
For over seven centuries the Gisborne District has been inhabited by the tribes of Te Whānau-a-Kai, Ngaariki Kaiputahi, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāti Porou and Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. According to Māori tradition, these iwi descended from three main groups of migrants, the crews of the Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru, Horouta and Tākitimu waka, which were part of a larger seven-canoe migration from Hawaiki around 1350 AD.
Māui and Paikea
The Ngāti Porou iwi of the East Cape cite the god-like figure Māui as being fundamental to their history. It is said that he is the ancestor who binds Ngāti Porou descendants to the beginnings of human existence. Māui's canoe Nukutaimemeha is the most ancient waka associated with the region. In it he is said to have fished up the North Island from the bottom of the ocean. According to tribal tradition, Nukutaimemeha now lies upturned in stone on Mt Hikurangi, another significant cultural icon.
Ngāti Porou derive their name from their ancestor Porourangi, a descendant of Māui. Porourangi's wife, Hamoterangi, migrated on Te Ikaroa a Rauru waka which belonged to Māia, brother-in-law of Uenuku, who bought with him precious gourd seeds. Te Ikaroa a Rauru came ashore on the Kaiti side of the Tūranganui River, close to Tuamotu, and the crew occupied this area as well as the banks of the Taruheru stream. Māia lived at the Puhi Kaiti pā.
Paikea is also a key ancestor in East Coast history who is said to have come from Hawaiki on the back of a whale. Traditions recount how, on his journey to New Zealand, Paikea's canoe sunk and his brothers drowned. After calling upon the guardians of the sea to help him, a taniwha in the form of a whale came to his rescue and carried him to land at Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island). From here he went on to Whakatāne, and eventually to Whangara on the East Coast.
Horouta, Takitimu and Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru
Whilst it is generally accepted that the tribes of the East Coast descend from the voyagers of the three above mentioned waka, local oral traditions offer differing versions of account regarding their arrival in the region. The learned Māoris of the past regarded their history as being exceedingly sacred, or tapu, and therefore imparting it to a stranger rendered it 'polluted' or 'common'. Being the most sacred canoe of all in the migration, the Tākitimu'''s history was held strictly tapu. Subsequently, two versions of its story exist, one of the Northern East Coast which tells of the crew disembarking at Mahia, and the other of the Southern East Coast which maintains that the Tākitimu landed at several places along the East Coast including Ūawa (Tolaga Bay) and Turanganui (Gisborne).
In one account, the great navigator Kiwa was the commander aboard the Tākitimu canoe which made the first landfall in the region from Hawaiki. In this version, Pāoa (or Pawa), captain of the waka Horouta, is said to have followed later. However, another widely accepted version of events is that Horouta preceded Tākitimu (possibly by as much as 100 years) with both Pāoa and Kiwa aboard, and that Tamatea was commander of Tākitimu. In 1931, Sir Āpirana Ngata maintained in an address to the Tairawhiti Maori Association that Horouta was in fact the main canoe that brought the people to the East Coast, not the Takitimu, and that Ngāti Porou had always regarded Tākitimu as "an unimportant canoe". Māori historian Rongowhakaata Halbert also affirmed this in his book 'Horouta' (1999).
Originally, the great Polynesian explorer Toi had given the Horouta to Kahukura so he could retrieve kumara from Hawaiki. After retrieving the vegetables, Horouta returned to New Zealand with Pāoa as her commander and Kiwa her priest. The canoe first made landfall at Ahuahu, followed by the Bay of Plenty and Te Muriwai, where Pāoa's sister Hinehakirirangi disembarked and decided to stay.Horouta then continued across the bay around until it came ashore on the west bank of the Turanganui River. Kiwa was first to set foot on land (either as the new commander of a skeleton crew, or because it was customary for a priest to do so), and thus named the land "Tūranganui-a-Kiwa" (The great standing place of Kiwa).