Hongi Hika

New Zealand Māori chief

Hongi Hika (c. 1772 – 6 March 1828) was a New Zealand Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the iwi of Ngāpuhi. He was a pivotal figure in the early years of regular European contact and settlement in New Zealand. As one of the first Māori leaders to understand the advantages of European muskets in warfare, he used European weapons to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the early nineteenth century Musket Wars. He was however not only known for his military prowess; Hongi Hika encouraged Pākehā (European) settlement, built mutually beneficial relationships with New Zealand's first missionaries, introduced Māori to Western agriculture and helped put the Māori language into writing. He travelled to England and met King George IV. His military campaigns, along with the other Musket Wars, were one of the most important motivators for the British annexation of New Zealand and subsequent Treaty of Waitangi with Ngāpuhi and many other iwi.

Hongi Hika was born near Kaikohe into a powerful family of the Te Uri o Hua hapū (subtribe) of Ngāpuhi. His mother was Tuhikura, a Ngāti Rēhia woman. She was the second wife of his father Te Hōtete, son of Auha, who with his brother Whakaaria had expanded Ngāpuhi's territory from the Kaikohe area into the Bay of Islands area. Hongi said later in life that he had been born in the year explorer Marion du Fresne was killed by Māori (in 1772), and this is generally now accepted as his birth year,

Hongi Hika rose to prominence as a military leader in the Ngāpuhi campaign, led by Pokaia, the uncle of Hōne Heke, against the Te Roroa hapū of Ngāti Whātua iwi in 1806–1808. In over 150 years since the Māori first begun sporadic contact with Europeans, firearms had not entered into widespread use. Ngāpuhi fought with small numbers of them in 1808, and Hongi was present later that same year on the first occasion that muskets were used in action by Māori. the Ngāpuhi were overrun by the opposing Ngāti Whātua while reloading. Those killed included two of Hongi's brothers and Pokaia, and Hongi and other survivors only escaped by hiding in a swamp until Ngāti Whātua called off the pursuit to avoid provoking utu. In 1812 Hongi led a large taua (war party) to the Hokianga against Ngāti Pou. Despite the defeat of Ngāpuhi at Moremonui, he recognised the potential value of muskets in warfare if they were used tactically and by warriors with proper training.

Ngāpuhi controlled the Bay of Islands, the first point of contact for most Europeans visiting New Zealand in the early 19th century. Hongi Hika protected early missionaries and European seamen and settlers, arguing the benefits of trade. Like other Europeans who met Hongi, Kendall recorded that he was struck by the gentleness of his manner and his charm and mild disposition. In written records, he was often referred to as "Shungee" or "Shunghi" by early European settlers. Hongi's older half brother, Kāingaroa, was an important chief, and his death in 1815 led to Hongi becoming the ariki of Ngāpuhi. In 1814 Hongi and his nephew Ruatara, himself a Ngāpuhi chief, visited Sydney with Kendall and met the local head of the Church Missionary Society Samuel Marsden. Marsden was later to describe Hongi as "a very fine character uncommonly mild in his manners and very polite". Ruatara died the following year, leaving Hongi as protector of the mission at Rangihoua Bay. Other missions were also established under his protection at Kerikeri and Waimate North. In 1818 Hongi led one of two Ngāpuhi taua against East Cape and Bay of Plenty iwi Ngāti Porou and Ngaiterangi. Some fifty villages were destroyed and the taua returned in 1819 carrying nearly 2,000 captured slaves. Hongi encouraged and assisted the first Christian missions to New Zealand, but never converted to Christianity himself. On 4 July 1819 he granted 13,000 acres of land at Kerikeri to the Church Missionary Society in return for 48 felling axes, land which became known as the Society's Plains. He protected Thomas Kendall when he left his wife, taking a Māori wife and participating in Māori religious ceremonies. In later life, exasperated with teachings of humility and non violence, he described Christianity as a religion fit only for slaves.

In 1820 Hongi Hika, his nephew Waikato, and Kendall travelled to England on board the whaling ship New Zealander. He spent 5 months in London and Cambridge where his facial moko tattoos made him something of a sensation. During the trip he met King George IV who presented him with a suit of armour. He was later to wear this in battle in New Zealand, causing terror amongst his opponents. Using the weapons he had obtained in Australia, within months of his return Hongi led a force of around 2,000 warriors (of whom over 1,000 were armed with muskets) against those of the Ngāti Pāoa chief, Te Hinaki, at Mokoia and Mauinaina pā (Māori forts) on the Tamaki River (now Panmure). This battle resulted in the death of Hinaki and hundreds, if not thousands, of Ngāti Paoa men, women and children. This battle was in revenge for a previous defeat in around 1795, in which Ngāpuhi had sustained heavy losses. Deaths in this one action during the intertribal Musket Wars may have outnumbered all deaths in 25 years of the later New Zealand Wars. He wore the suit of armour that had been gifted by King George IV during this battle; it saved his life, leading to rumours of his invincibility. In early 1822 he led his force up the Waikato River where, after initial success, he was defeated by Te Wherowhero, before gaining another victory at Orongokoekoea. Te Wherowhero ambushed the Ngāpuhi carrying Ngāti Mahuta women captives and freed them. In 1825 Hongi avenged the earlier defeat of Moremonui in the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui, although both sides suffered heavy losses.

In 1826 Hongi Hika moved from Waimate to conquer Whangaroa and found a new settlement. In part this was to punish Ngāti Uru and Ngāti Pou for having harassed the European people at Wesleydale, the Wesleyan mission at Kaeo. In January 1827, Hongi Hika was shot in the chest by the warrior Maratea during a minor engagement in the Hokianga. He was survived by five of his children, and his final burial place was a closely guarded secret. of Hongi Hika. Frederick Edward Maning, a Pākehā Māori, who lived at Hokianga, wrote a near contemporaneous account of Hongi Hika in A History of the War in the North of New Zealand Against the Chief Heke. His account said that Hongi warned on his deathbed that, if "red coat" soldiers should land in Aotearoa, "when you see them make war against them". James Stack, Wesleyan missionary at Whangaroa, recorded a conversation with Eruera Maihi Patuone on 12 March 1828, in which it was said that Hongi Hika exhorted his followers to oppose against any force that came against them and that his dying words were "No matter from what quarter your enemies come, let their number be ever so great, should they come there hungry for you, kia toa, kia toa – be brave, be brave! Thus will you revenge my death, and thus only do I wish to be revenged."

Hongi Hika is remembered as a warrior and leader during the Musket Wars. Some historians have attributed Hongi Hika's military success to his acquisition of muskets, comparing his military skills poorly with the other major Māori war leader of the period, Te Rauparaha,

Hongi Hika never attempted to establish any form of long term government over iwi he conquered and rarely attempted to permanently occupy territory. It is likely his aims were opportunistic, based on increasing his mana as a warrior. He is said to have stated during his visit to England, "There is only one king in England, there shall be only one king in New Zealand", but if he had ambitions of becoming a Māori king, they were never realised. In 1828 Māori lacked a national identity, seeing themselves as belonging to separate iwi. It would be 30 years before Waikato iwi recognised a Māori king. That king was Te Wherowhero, a man who had built his mana defending the Waikato against Hongi Hika in the 1820s. His second son, Hāre Hongi Hika (having taken his older brother's name after the latter's death in 1825), was a signatory in 1835 to the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand. He became a prominent leader after his father's death and was one of only six rangatira to sign the declaration by writing his name, rather than making a tohu (mark). He was later to be a prominient figure in Māori struggles for sovereignty in the nineteenth century and was instrumental in the opening of Te Tii Waitangi Marae in 1881. He died in 1885, aged in his seventies. Hongi Hiki's daughter Hariata (Harriet) Rongo married Hōne Heke at the Kerikeri chapel on 30 March 1837. She had inherited her father's confidence and drive, and brought her own mana to the relationship. She had lived for some years with the family of Charlotte Kemp and her husband James Kemp. Hongi Hika is portrayed leading a war party against the Te Arawa iwi in a 2018 music video for New Zealand thrash metal band Alien Weaponry's song "Kai Tangata".