Our whakapapa traces back in time to the tipuna Paikea. He became immortalised for voyaging to Te Ika a Māui on the back of a whale around the end of the 15th century. However, Paikea is said to be connected with the waka Horouta which was reputedly in Rarotonga at the same time as the waka Tākitimu before voyaging here and eventually landed and settled on the East Coast of the North Island.

As the population grew, families naturally started migrating away to find new territory for themselves. The eponymous ancestor from whence Kāi Tahu take our name, Tahu Pōtiki is a direct descendant of Paikea. Tahu Pōtiki was born in Whākārā on the East Coast, and was younger brother to Porourangi, from whom Kāti Porou descend. Tahu took Hemo Te Raki to wife, the widow of his brother Porourangi and together they had three children. Eventually, the descendants of Tahu Pōtiki migrated southward; generally speaking, they went from the Gisborne area to Hawkes Bay, then through the Wairarapa and on to Whātaitai in Wellington Harbour.

Approximately 10 generations after Paikea came Pūrahonui. Pūraho was the son of Tahumataroa, and grandson of ariki Rokotipuetiata. His mother was Rākaitekura, the eldest child of Kurī and Tānemoehu. The wife of Pūraho was Hinepāka who was the daughter of Pahirua and granddaughter of Tūhaitara. Pūraho was honoured with leading the large-scale migration of his mother’s people Kāti Kurī from Whātaitai to Te Waipounamu sometime in the latter part of the 17th century. This movement is known as Te Heke a Pūrahonui and was the first tranch of movements south for the peoples that would eventually be known as Kāi Tahu.

Upon the death of Pūraho his eldest son Maru Kaitātea took on the leadership mantel and led Kāti Kurī through the most of the difficult battles and the first phase of the southern migration, ultimately claiming Kaikōura for himself. The people of Kāi Tūhaitara who had originally hesitated moving south with Kāti Kurī, eventually also crossed Te Moana o Raukawa. Younger brother to Maru, Makō Hākirikiri was an acclaimed warrior, supporting Kāti Kurī’s endeavours to make the south and its coastlines a safe new settlement area. It was at Peketā that Makō, Maru and other Kāti Kurī and Kāi Tūhaitara chiefs heard descriptions of the land southward and the resources therein; in his turn, Makō claimed southern Banks’ Peninsula as his new home. Eventually, Makō and his people went to Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū and initially settled Waikākahi the enormous Kāti Māmoe pā between Te Roto o Wairewa and Te Waihora. Later, he built his pā named Ōtāwiri at the head of Te Roto o Wairewa and settled peacefully.

Makō’s wife was Te Rōpūake. She was the eldest child of Te Rakiwhakaputa a revered warrior and titular head of Kāti Kurī. Her mother, Hine Te Awheka was Kāti Māmoe. Te Rakiwhakaputa and his people also settled on Bank’s Peninsula in the Lyttleton Harbour area. Makō and Te Rōpūake had two daughters named Waimatuku and Marutuna. Waimatuku married Te Rakikakonui, Maru’s grandson. Marutuna’s descendants are known as the “Ruahikihiki line”.

The earliest recorded ship sighting about Horomaka dates to the early 1790’s; contact, religion, industry and trade began with Takata Pora (ship people) around the turn of the century. Kāti Makō had lived in abundance and flourished for 7 generations at Wairewa (Little River). Our relations, Kāti Irakehu of Wainui were also prosperous and upoko ariki Te Maiharanui would build a pā for the purpose of trade across the harbour from Wainui, at Takapūneke.

But circumstances would change dramatically and forever beginning with a vicious civil war which erupted in the mid 1820’s. The coming of Te Rauparaha in the late 1820’s did not stop the civil war and the Northerners took advantage of the disunity it created. In 1830 he abducted Te Maiharanui and sacked the pā of Takapuneke. In 1832 at Ōnawe we were tricked by our relations and quickly overwhelmed in the fighting; probably less than 50 escaped and those who survived both massacres that day were taken as slaves. The consequences were devastating as most of those who had scattered before the fighting as well as many of the enslaved never returned. However, Eastern and Southern Te Waipounamu Māori amalgamated into a cohesive military force with a common objective for the first time ever. Kāi Tahu waged magnificent campaigns in 1833 and 1834 which saw Te Rauparaha defeated and the invaders were ousted, never to return.

Meanwhile, a lethal array of imported “common illnesses” such as the measles and influenza were further reducing Māori populations. Six years of attempted rebuilding followed which saw limited settlement by European whalers and farmers before Kāti Wiwi (the French) settled at Akaroa in 1840 and in late 1850 the English arrived.