page_title: Ngāti Hauā
section_title: New Zealand Land Wars
hierarchical_section_title: Ngāti Hauā / New Zealand Land Wars
caption_attribution_description: English: William Thompson chief of Ngatihaua. Three quarter length portrait of Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa, also known as William Thompson, holding a rifle? across his lap.
context_page_description: Ngāti Hauā is a Māori iwi of the eastern Waikato of New Zealand. It is part of the Tainui confederation. Its traditional area includes Matamata, Cambridge, Maungakawa, the Horotiu district along the Waikato River and the Maungatautari district, and its eastern boundary is the Kaimai Range. Leaders of the tribe have included Te Waharoa, his son Wiremu Tamihana and Tamihana's son Tupu Taingakawa. The tribe has played a prominent role in the Māori King Movement, with Tamihana and descendants being known as the "Kingmakers".
context_section_description: Ngati Haua played an active, though small part in the Taranaki Wars. King Potatau had forbidden Waikato and Ngati Haua iwi to take part in the war in Taranaki against the Pakeha but when he died Ngati Haua decide to join a second expedition to Taranaki despite their chief Wiremu Tamihana being against it. Ngati Haua provided 80 warriors led by Wetini Taiparutu. They were armed with shotguns and tomahawks. In the first battle of this campaign at an old pa on a small hillock at Mahoetahi near New Plymouth on 6 November 1860, Wetini was killed along with about a quarter of the Ngati Haua with many wounded. Total Maori casualties were 50 and 4 British died. Some authorities have put the defeat down to a combination of naivety on the part of Ngati Haua and treachery on the part of Taranaki leaders Hapurona and Wiremu Kīngi who had once been Waikato slaves. The Ngati Awa, instead of descending on the British flank, as had been agreed, merely fired their guns in the air from a safe distance and retreated.  A second attack at Huirangi was made in an effort to gain revenge but this also ended in a defeat. Many Ngati Haua returned with serious wounds including Te Whitu who had his jaw shot away. These events  underpinned the decision by Ngati Haua to join the Kingitanga forces during the Invasion of the Waikato in 1863.
  Ngati Haua were one of the several iwi who took part in attacks on Auckland. Most of these attacks were raids on outposts or isolated farms. The attacks were believed to be instigated by Rewi Maniapoto but Tamihana took part in at least one and his sons in several. The attacks were designed to win the Kingites time to build the Mere Mere line of defence. After the defeat at Meremere Wiremu Tamahana lead about 100 Ngati Haua into Rangiriri Pa to join other Waikato iwi notably Ngati Mahuta. After the defeat at Rangiriri Tamihana sent his greenstone mere to General Cameron as an indication of surrender but Cameron was not interested in talking to him about a limited surrender. The Ngati Haua retreated to Maungatautari where they began to rebuild Te Tiki pa on the slopes of the mountain to make it suitable for contemporary warfare. Cameron followed him with about half of his force. Three days after Cameron's forces arrived the Ngati Haua suddenly left the pa. A short time later they arrived at the Battle of Orakau with warriors from other iwi but were unable or unwilling to break through Carey's government lines to reinforce the mainly Ngati Maniapoto and Tuhoe defenders.
caption: Wiremu Tamihana sitting. Photograph taken by John Kinder in 1860. The photograph is labelled with Tamihana's anglicized name, William Thompson
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