Te Ruki Kawiti

Te Ruki Kawiti (1770s–1854) was a prominent Māori rangatira (chief). He and Hone Heke successfully fought the British in the Flagstaff War in 1845–46.

Descended from Nukutawhiti and Rāhiri, he was born in the north of New Zealand into the Ngāti Hine hapu, one of the subtribes of Ngāpuhi. From his youth he was trained in leadership and warfare by Hongi Hika. . He was present at the Battle of Moremonui in 1807 or 1808 when many Ngāpuhi were slaughtered by Ngāti Whātua. Almost twenty years later, in 1825, he was at the Battle of Te Ika a Ranganui when it was Ngāpuhi's turn to slaughter Ngāti Whātua in an act of utu or revenge. He took a number of Ngāti Whātua captive and refused to hand them over to Hongi Hika, preferring instead to return them to their own people to whom he was related.

Kawiti initially refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, believing that it would inevitably lead to further European encroachment and the loss of Māori land. However he eventually yielded to pressure from his own people and signed the Treaty in May 1840, right at the top, above those chiefs who had signed earlier.

However he soon grew disenchanted with British law and supported Hone Heke in his protests against British rule. Hone Heke sought support from Kawiti and other leaders of the Ngāpuhi iwi by the conveying of ‘te ngākau’, the custom observed by those who sought help to settle a tribal grievance. Hone Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti worked out the plan to draw the Colonial forces into battle, with the opening provocations focusing on the flagstaff on Maiki Hill at the north end Kororareka. When in March 1845 Heke cut down the flag pole at Kororareka for the fourth time, thereby initiating the Flagstaff War, Kawiti, now in his seventies, created a diversion by attacking the town.

The Māori warriors followed their chief and would fight in separate groups; however Kawiti and Heke co-ordinated their tactics at each battle. The conduct of the Flagstaff War appears to follow a strategy of drawing the Colonial forces into attacking a fortified pā, from which the warriors could fight from a strong defensive position that was secure from cannon fire. Kawiti was the senior rangatira and appears to have had a key role in the strategic decisions as to the design of the strengthened defences of Pene Taui's pā at Ohaeawai and the design and construction of the new pā that was build at Ruapekapeka to engage the British forces.