Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.


Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
191Sheet 1 — The Waitangi SheetRehana TeiraReihana TeiraTe Rarawa?Te PatukorahaKaitāia 28 April 1840

Reihana Teira signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 28 April 1840 at Kaitāia. He was from Maunganui.

One Rangahau Whānui report for the Waitangi Tribunal suggests this was Reihana Teira Waero, while a second suggests Reihana Teira Ngakaruwhero.

Reihana spoke before the signing:

We have always been gentlemen; we do not want a shepherd. We will not be hindered getting wood; we formerly cleared any spot of land we liked, burnt the wood; then some one came and built a house on it, and then we quarrelled. [1]


[1] Quoted in T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 147


If you have more information about this treaty signatory please add a community contribution below or contact us at [email protected].

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