Topine Te Mamaku

Topine Te Mamaku seated in front of a tent at Tawhata wrapped in a blanket, photographed in May 1885 by Alfred Burton.

In the early 1820s Te Mamaku (Ngati Haua-te-rangi) had wanted his people to join the migration of Te Rauparaha and Ngati Toa to Kapiti. He was dissuaded by Te Peehi Turoa. In 1829 both men were caught up in Te Rauparaha's siege of Putiki, near the mouth of the Whanganui River. They managed to escape and fled upriver.

In 1846 Te Mamaku and some 200 of his Ngati Haua-te-rangi warriors supported Te Rangihaeata and Ngati Rangatahi in their dispute with the European settlers in the Hutt Valley. He led the attack on Boulcott’s farm in May 1846. He wrote to other Wanganui chiefs asking them to join him against the Wellington settlers. The missionary Richard Taylor intercepted these letters and one was passed on to Governor George Grey. The information obtained from this letter influenced Grey's decision to arrest Te Rauparaha.

When four upriver Maori were executed for their part in the Gilfillan killings in April 1847, Te Mamaku and 700 of his warriors laid siege to Wanganui. After a minor battle in July the seige was ended and Te Mamaku returned to his upriver stronghold near Pipiriki.

On Christmas Day 1853 Te Mamaku was baptised at Putiki by Richard Taylor. He took the name Hemi Topine (James Stovin). Conversion to Christianity did not see him renounce war. In the mid 1850s a dispute broke out between Ngati Haua-te-rangi and Te Kere Ngatai-e-rua of Ngati Tu. This may have been the result of an insult or an argument over a flour mill under construction at Maraekowhai. There was a battle at the old pa high above Kirikiriroa, on the upper Wanganui, and subsequently a siege of a pa downstream at Puketapu belonging to Ngati Tu.

In 1857 Te Mamaku declined an offer to become the first Maori king, but he agreed to join the King movement the following year.

War returned to the Whanganui River in May 1864 when Matene Te Rangitauira of Taumarunui led Hauhau forces against Maori of the lower Wanganui. Te Mamaku did not take part in the decisive battle of Moutoa, on the Wanganui River. But he supported Te Peehi Pakoro Turoa (Te Peehi Turoa's son) and Hauhau forces in the battle at Ohoutahi, below Pipiriki, in February 1865.

Te Mamaku was said to be almost 100 years old when he died in June 1887 at Tawhata, below Taumarunui.