Tāwhiao (Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Tāwhiao; c. 1822 – 26 August 1894) was leader of the Waikato tribes, the second Māori King, and a religious figure. He was a member of the Ngati Mahuta hapū of Waikato.
Biography
Tāwhiao's father, Te Wherowhero, was the leader of the Waikato people, and his mother, Whakaawi, was Te Wherowhero's senior wife. He was born around 1822.
After the Waikato were defeated by musket-armed Ngāpuhi led by Hongi Hika in a battle at Matakitaki (Pirongia) in 1822, they retreated to Orongokoekoea Pā, in what is now the King Country, and lived there for several years. Tāwhiao was born at Orongokoekoea in about 1825 and was named Tūkāroto to commemorate, it is said, his father's stand at Matakitaki. Tūkāroto was later baptised Matutaera (Methuselah) by Anglican missionary Robert Burrows, but repudiated it in 1867. Te Ua Haumēne, the Hauhau prophet, gave him the name Tāwhiao in 1864. Tāwhiao was raised by his mother's parents.
In 1858 Te Wherowhero was installed as the first Māori King (taking the name Pōtatau), his purpose being to promote unity among the Māori people in the face of Pākehā encroachment. When Pōtatau died in 1860, Tāwhiao, his sister Te Paea Tiaho, and Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi of Ngāti Hauā were candidates to succeed him. Tāwhiao was chosen and reigned for thirty-four years during one of the most difficult and discouraging periods of Māori history. During this period there were two governments de jure; English law and governance prevailed within the British settlements and Māori custom over the rest of the country, although the influence of the King was largely confined to the Waikato and even there chiefs such as Rewi Maniapoto only cooperated with the king when it suited them. However the Pākehā population was increasing rapidly while the Māori population was unknown as there was no reliable census of Maori and Pākehā / Maori for 80 years. Because Maori separated themselves from Pākehā, many believed, wrongly, that the Maori population was declining rapidly. This was also the period when British industrial, trade and political power was at its height. The presence of an independent native state in the central North Island was officially ignored by the government until it developed the potential to undermine the colonial government's sovereignty.
In 1863, after Maniapoto warriors ambushed and killed British soldiers escorting a British soldier along the beach to New Plymouth for trial, the Government attacked the Kingitanga in Waikato, to suppress the King movement and remove the threat of a supposed attack on Auckland. The conquered land was confiscated, altogether about a million acres (4,000 km2). Six months later, with a change of government, the king was offered large reserves which he initially refused but much later accepted.
Tāwhiao and his people moved southwards, into the territory of the Ngāti Maniapoto, the area of New Zealand that is still known as the King Country. He was a pacifist, or perhaps he was simply a realist who recognized the futility of trying to fight the Colonial government. For the next twenty years he lived an itinerant lifestyle, travelling among his people in Taranaki and Maniapoto settlements reminding them that war always had its price and the price was always higher than expected. He considered himself the anointed leader of a chosen people wandering in the wilderness. But he also predicted that the Māori people would find justice and restitution for the wrongs they had suffered. He preached that Kingites should keep separate from Pākehā. He was strongly against Maori children going to school to get an education. As a result, when the railway went through Kingite territory Kingites were only able to get unskilled jobs such as bush clearing. This strong anti education stance started a Kingite tradition that led to increasing isolation and lower standard of living than Maori experienced elsewhere in New Zealand. It was not until after the turn of the century that Kingites were finally persuaded to abandon their hatred of formal education in schools.
In 1878 the New Zealand Government with George Grey as Premier approached Tāwhiao with the proposal that some of their Waikato land would be restored to them if they would accept the integration of the King Country with the rest of New Zealand. On the advice of his council Tāwhiao rejected the offer. However it was accepted three years later in a modified form.