Signing details
Tāwhai – later known as Mohi (Moses) Tāwhai – was born around 1806. His father was Tāmaha. Tāwhai had at least two wives, one of whom was Rāwinia Hine-i-koaia (also known as Hārata or Charlotte), with whom he had a son, Hōne Mohi Tāwhai. Associated with Waimā in southern Hokianga, Tāwhai told one European visitor: 'There I was born, and there I wish to die, and leave my children to inherit my land.' [1]
Small in stature, Tāwhai was described as 'having an eye of fire, sinews of steel, and the tongue of an orator; his natural force is not abated.' [2] Respected as an arbiter in disputes, he intervened when Moka was believed to be trespassing on land in southern Hokianga. In response to a Te Rarawa taua, Tāwhai composed a unique peace haka with the Reverend H. H. Lawry, and violence was averted. Tāwhai marked the event by carving a taiaha, known as the ‘taiaha of peace’, as a gift to Lawry.
Tāwhai was indirectly involved in the pig wars of 1826. Pigs were valuable possessions, and some had been gifted by Pōmare II’s uncle Pōmarenui on the wedding of Pōmarenui’s cousin Te Whareumu to Tāwhai’s daughter Moehuri. When the animals were wrongfully claimed by Pōmarenui’s son Tiki, he was shot and killed. Pōmare II, Tāmati Wāka Nene, Patuone and Hokianga leader Muriwai tried to settle the dispute, but Te Whareumu, Muriwai and others were killed. Patuone and Nene then placed Te Whareumu’s body among their own dead to prevent further fighting.
Tāwhai was also a strategist who was keen to safeguard the well-being of his people. On 21 September 1835 he attended a meeting at the Wesleyan mission house at Mangungu, where a liquor ban in Hokianga was adopted. Two years later Tāwhai set out to form a committee of rangatira to keep land at Waimā in Māori hands. Such concerns would have been reasons for signing He Whakaputanga, which he did sometime between 29 March 1836 and 25 June 1837.
Around this time Tāwhai was baptised as a Wesleyan (Methodist) at Mangungu, and took the name Mohi (Moses). He is said to have challenged the validity of Māori beliefs by washing his head – an extremely tapu area of the body – in a pot previously used for food. 'If he was still alive when the sun set, that would be the appointed sign telling him that the Christian god was the true god and he would be a disciple,' writes Hazel Petrie. [3]
Soon after, he travelled north to Muriwhenua to make peace with his former enemies. Mohi Tāwhai was praised by missionaries as their 'local preacher and class-leader, and deservedly respected for his zeal and fidelity.' [4] However, his conversion to Christianity led one European observer to comment: 'Mohi was greatly feared, but now they said to him: "How is this? When in days gone by we heard of your coming, we all took to our arms. Your name was Tawhai, but now you are called Mohi; and we have no fear in your presence."' [5]
Mohi Tāwhai signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Mangungu on 12 February 1840. During the discussions before the signing, Tāwhai questioned the authority of the governor and whether he could 'stop all the lands from falling into the hands of the Pakehas.' He uttered the much quoted line: 'Our sayings will sink to the bottom like a stone, but your sayings will float light, like the wood of the Whau-tree.' [6]
During the 1845–46 Northern Wars, Mohi Tāwhai allied with the British forces. In 1875 he died after falling from his horse outside the Wesleyan church he had just attended. He was around seventy years of age.
[1] John Waterhouse, Journal of a Second Voyage: from Hobart-Town, Van Diemen’s Land, to New Zealand, the Friendly Islands, and Feejee, commenced October 1840, Wesleyan Mission-House and John Mason, London, 1844, p.8.
[2] J. G. Turner, The Pioneer Missionary: Life of the Rev. Nathaniel Turner, Missionary in New Zealand, Tonga, and Australia, George Robertson, Melbourne, 1872, p.169.
[3] Hazel Petrie, Outcasts of the Gods? The Struggle over Slavery in Māori New Zealand, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2016, pp.258–59.
[4] Charles O. B. Davis, The Renowned Chief Kawiti and Other New Zealand Warriors, Lambert, Auckland, 1855, p.15.
[5] James Buller, Forty Years in New Zealand Including a Personal Narrative, an Account of Maoridom, and of the Christianization and Colonization of the Country, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1878, p.53.
[6] J. S. Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: How New Zealand Became a British Colony, Thomas Avery & Sons, New Plymouth, 1936, p.173.
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