Rangi Hauiti Pokiha

1895 - 1980



Rangi Pokiha was born at Koriniti, a direct descendant of Turi who captained the Aotea canoe, and the chief of the Ngāti Pamoana of Koriniti. He was connected, through his mother, to the Nga Rauru of Kai Iwi. As a child he was selected to be educated in the Whare Wananga under the tutelage of Tamati Te Hua Katene and Paamu Tinirau. He attended Pamoana Native School which later became Koriniti School, went on to Hikurangi Boys’ College from 1909-1911 and continued his studies at Te Aute College. He left school in 1913 and worked as a surveyor in Wanganui. He married Kaewa Metekingi and in 1917 joined the 26th Reinforcements of the Māori Pioneer Battalion on which he served as a Lance Corporal. He returned to Koriniti in 1919 and studied law briefly under Mr Slipper of Wanganui. He worked for the Ministry of Works Camp and surveyed the River Road. He joined the Whanganui Historical Society when it was first founded in 1969 and in 1971 was elected vice president of the Society and was made a life member in 1975. He was affiliated to both the Ringatu and Anglican churches. He asked for Ringatu to be upheld at Koriniti in the mid 1970s and started the monthly Ras. He was an Anglican church warden at Pepara Church in Koriniti and took services. In the 1970s he hosted groups from the Youth Aid Division of the New Zealand Police Department when they held their refresher courses at Koriniti Marae. Pokiha was a gifted sportsman and won many sports trophies. He played rugby to an advanced age and was known as "Rangi Fox" because of his great agility on the rugby field. He administered rugby for Wainui-a-Rua and played competitive tennis. He was a member of the RSA and attended the Te Hokowhitu A Tu reunions. In his obituary Pokiha was acknowledged "as the greatest authority on the Whanganui River and its people... and at the time of his death was nationally recognised as the foremost authority on the genealogy, lore, legends and history of the river." He accompanied Iriaka Ratana down to Government House when she was inducted into Parliament. Pokiha was bilingual and was an eloquent speaker and writer in both Māori and English. He wrote non-fiction work particularly concerning the Whanganui River district and Koriniti Pa. On his 70th birthday he wrote "Reminiscences". Over the course of many years he wrote a handwritten book of whakapapa, and recorded the writings from Te Kooti and other elders from the River. He assisted in the writing of The Wanganui Story by Max Smart and Arthur Bates. Other writing by Pokiha remains unpublished. He was an inspirational orator on the marae and wrote many speeches including one delivered at Moutoa Gardens on Waitangi Day. He also delivered major addresses at Victoria and Massey Universities. He recorded waiata anga moteatea for Victoria University as well as traditional waiata and his own material for Radio New Zealand Archives.

Biographical sources

  • Correspondence, interview and phone call with Lois Gilbert, March 1998, 5 and 9 April 1998, 19 and 22 May 1998, and 12 August 2004.
  • Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. and the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 2.1 (1971). No further details.
  • "Obituary: Rangi Hauiti Pokiha." Te Māori Apr./May [1980]: 38.

    Non-fiction

  • "Welcome Speech by Rangi Pokiha to Whanganui Historical Society at Koriniti - January 30, 1971." Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. And the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 2.1 (May 1971): 10.
  • Opening with a tribal saying that once was uttered as a message of war, Pokiha states that now it is a message of ‘peace and of welcome’ and he uses it to welcome the Whanganui Historical Society to Koriniti Pa.
  • "Koroniti[sic] Pa." Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. And the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 2.1 (May 1971): 11-12.
  • Pokiha provides a history of Koriniti Pa which was named by Rev Richard Taylor after the Biblical name Corinth in 1848, replacing the earlier name Otukopiri. Koriniti became the permanent home of the Ngāti Pamoana tribe and Pokiha describes the wharepuni, Te Waiherehere, which was rebuilt in 1921-22 by Nikorima Pokiha, Te Turi Poutama, Pokiha Peni (Pokiha’s father) and members of the Nga Poutama Tribe.
  • "Church Building - Koriniti." Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. And the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 2.1 (May 1971): 12-13.
  • Pokiha gives a short history of the churches built at Koriniti with the first being constructed in 1848 through the vision of Mr Mason, the first Anglican Missionary resident in the district. A second church was built during the ministry of Rev Richard Taylor and the current church was built in 1920-21 using a prepared plan from the Church Board Architect of Wellington, N.Z.
  • "Operiki Fighting Pa." Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. And the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 2.1 (May 1971): 13-15.
  • Pokiha describes a major battle at Operiki Pa when a Waikato war party tried unsuccessfully to lay seige to Operiki. He writes of a smaller battle held at Mangatoa Pa in 1827 and lists the Ngāti Pamoana battles outside of the district.
  • Ngāti Pamoana, Koriniti: Whanganui River, 1975. Roger W. Hardie and Rangi Pokiha. [Koriniti], N.Z.: Koriniti Marae Committee, 1975.
  • Hardie writes that ‘[t]his booklet has been compiled mainly from the stories of Mr. Rangi Pokiha of Koriniti, in an endeavour to preserve and present some of the history of the Ngāti Pamoana people for students of Māori studies visiting the Koriniti Marae.’ The booklet includes a record of the early tribal ancestors of Ngāti Pamoana, and a section entitled: "Rangi Pokiha Reflects Upon The Exodus of the River People" in which Pokiha discusses the life of the Māori communities along the Wanganui river from 1895, with reference to the games played, weaving, dancing, church services, high employment, and the impact of the First World War and conscription. Pokiha describes the diminishing employment opportunities in the area after 1937 and the resulting tide of migration to the cities. The booklet also contains descriptions of Koriniti Pa, Te Waiherehere Meeting House, Poutama Meeting House at Hikurangi Pa, early churches at Koriniti, the Mission House, Pamoana Māori School, Operiki Fighting Pa, an account in Māori and English of the Battle at Kokohuia and a list of other Ngāti Pamoana battles. Some of this material is a reprint of the articles published in Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. And the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 2.1 (May 1971).
  • Other

  • "Dreamy Reminiscences." Unpublished reminiscences, 1966.
  • These handwritten reminiscences are dated 4 August 1966 and were written on the occasion of Pokiha’s 71st birthday and are held in the possession of his whanau. Pokiha writes of his sense of loneliness and recalls the love and warmth of his childhood. He questions whether he will ever see the Ngāti Pamoana people gather together again ‘under the roof of their ancestral whare-puni’.
  • Papers/Presentations

  • "Waitangi Day." Address. Moutoa Gardens, Wanganui, 6 Feb. 1971.
  • In this speech Pokiha asserts that there is very little in the Treaty of Waitangi today that the Māori can celebrate ‘for the Māori people have seen their lands and their fishing rights dwindle before their eyes, their mana, their language, and their authority eroded.’ However, he concludes that Waitangi Day ‘should be observed by the whole of New Zealand’ and that New Zealanders can be one people without Māori having to become ‘brown skinned Europeans’. The text of this address is held by Pokiha’s whanau.
  • Sound recordings

  • "They Always Come Back To The River." Alwyn Owen and Rangi Pokiha. Timaru, N.Z.: Radio NZ Sound Archives, [1976].
  • Alwyn Owen and Rangi Pokiha visit Putiki, Parikino and Koriniti.

    Other

  • Wanganui Herald 11 Feb. 1980: 3.
  • Wanganui Chronicle 12 Feb. 1980: 1.
  • "Rangi Hauiti Pokiha." Te Māori Apr./May [1980]: 38.
  • "He Whakamaharatanga Mo-Rangi Hauiti Pokiha: He Tohu Aroha Ki A Ia Ne Te Whanganui Historical Society." Historical Record: Journal of the Whanganui Historical Society Inc. and the Whanganui Branch of the New Zealand Founder’s Society Inc. 11.1 (May 1980): 5+.
  • This obituary records Pokiha’s involvement with the Whanganui Historical Society and it also provides a biography of Pokiha’s life.