Community Contributed

Tamatehura Meeting House, Katihiku Kainga

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:47:17+00:00
Tamatehura. Katihiku, Otaki. An old house with a pataka nearby.

In the days before Ngati Toa's arrival in the district Katihiku, on the southern bank of the Otaki River close to the mouth, was said to have been a Muaupoko Pa. Te Rangihaeata of Ngati Toa launched an attack against this stronghold in the early 1820s and succeeded in taking it. He pursued some of those who escaped to the summit of Pukehou Hill close to the main highway a few miles south of Manakau. Here was another clash and the fiery Te Rangihaeata came face to face with the leader of the Katihiku garrison, the great Muaupoko chief Tanguru who was the father of Major Kemp.

According to Horomona Toremi, Katihiku was given by Te Rauaparaha to Ngati Huia, a fighting tribe that sometimes took the field with Te Rangihaeata at their head. When Hector McDonald visited this place in 1847 he observed that Topeora (the sister of Te Rangihaeata) then lived at Katihiku, also Aperahama te Ruru, Pukehi (the father of Karanama), Pirimona, Te Tewe, Te Manahi, Te Manga (the sister of Rangitewhata) and others all of the Ngati Huia. (Ngakaroro 1874).

Some of the first Europeans to settle near Katihiku were the Kirks. Mrs Kirk gave evidence at the Ngakaroro hearing in 1874 concerning their residence there. "We rented a piece of land for several years at Katihiku from Topeora," she said. "Topeora and several others who are now dead lived there. Topeora was Rakapa's mother. I always understood that Topeora and Matene were the chief owners there." Mrs Kirk explained that although the majority of Ngati Huia never objected to their presence, they did have trouble with some of the Maoris led by a man named Parakaia. "They annoyed us by cutting down our fence, but Matene and Topeora asserted their influence and these people went away," she said. "Some years afterward we had a little more trouble from the same party." When Topeora died in 1865 the Kirks continued to pay their rent to Rakapa. According to Mrs Kirk, Topeora had offered the whole of the land from Katihiku to Waitaheke but it seemed to her that some of the inferior people were anxious to dispossess her. Topeora had at one time told Mrs Kirk that some of the Ngati Huia resided at Katihiku by her permission.

Adkin says that Katihiku was formerly situated on the southern side of the Otaki River about three-quarters of a mile from its mouth. "Changes in the course of the lower reaches of the river due to deafforestation higher up caused the abandonment of the original site about 1902. By that time the original pa had become an ordinary kainga, and the river encroachment becoming too critical it was moved to its present position thirty chains to the south-west" (Adkin, 1948:179)

Katihiku was the last of the old kaingas on the coast between Paekakariki and Otaki to be abandoned for a more Europeanised settlement. The last of the Ngati Huia families to occupy the old kainga moved across to a modern State housing area close to the Otaki township in the 1950s. At the present day only the meeting house called Tamatehura, and a few other small buildings survive. One of the old dwellings stands dilapidated and deserted, a pataka close to it now houses a few farmer's tools and the rest of the settlement is no more. Across the Whakapawaewae swamp on one of the low dune-ridges, could be seen about ten years ago the ruins of a small dwelling almost hidden among the encroaching lupins. This was once the home of an old tohunga named Tuauri. A few feet from his doorway and half buried in the sand was a large deposit of tuatua shells. A silver teaspoon a few inches below the surface of these shells is probable evidence of their having been associated with the Pakeha-type dwelling once used by the tohunga.

Tamati Hawea of Ngati Huia who still live[d] near Katihiku tells of the existence of a burial ground a sort distance down from the front of the Tamatehura meeting house. It was completely washed away by the river some years ago and many human bones were exposed as a result. Tamati clearly remembered in his younger days the last interment that was made there. (Carkeek, 1966)

It is not accessible by road and is a plain building with two windows and a central door. There are a few kowhaiwhai designs above the door and a pierced design on the amo tops. It is in good state and appears to date from the 1890-1900 period. (Cresswell, 1977)

Tamatehura meeting house. The assembly of the house of the present kainga of Katihiku on the south side of the Otaki River about 50 chains from its mouth. The hapu to which it belongs is the southern section of Ngati-Huia.

The building is inscribed, "established 1913, renewal 1933", (the former date is about ten years after the moving of the settlement to its present site); its length is 45 ft. including the 6 ft. porch, and is 21 feet in breadth.

There is no carving inside or out; the maihi are quite plain, and the tops pf the amo are conventionalized to a debased pierced design. The rafters bear the only ornamentation present- tuhi scrolls of one pattern throughout.

Tamatehura for whom the house was named, was an ancestor of the hapu; he was the son of Takihiku, and thus of the second generation from Raukawa. Huia, the eponymous ancestor of the hapu, was of the sixth generation from Ruakawa and the fourth from Tamatehura. (Adkin, 1948)