Wiremu Tamihana

Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa (~1805 - 1866), generally known as Wiremu Tamihana, was a leader of the Ngāti Hauā Māori iwi in nineteenth century New Zealand, and is sometimes known as the kingmaker for his role in the Māori King Movement.

Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa was born around 1805 at Tamahere on the Horotiu plains. His father was Te Waharoa. In his youth he fought in the Musket Wars. In the 1830s he converted to Christianity and was given the Christian name Wiremu Tamihana (William Thompson). He also learnt to read and write in the Māori language. After his father died in 1838, he became a leader of Ngāti Hauā even though he was not his father's eldest son. He founded a new pā or settlement, with rules based on the ten commandments. It included a church capable of holding up to a thousand people. There is no doubt Tamihana was a highly intelligent man with a creative mind keen to learn from the British. He also taught in a school, established farming in his community, and traded produce to Pākehā settlers in Auckland. Another Christian community was founded in 1846 at Peria. He sold many acres of his tribal land that was swampy to the Scottish Morrin brothers who hired Irish navvies to dig ditches and drain the land and turn it into some of the most fertile dairy land in New Zealand.