IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS

Te Rangi Pikinga belonged to the Ngāti Apa people of Whanganui and Taranaki and was born around 1800. Her mother was Te Rangi Kopinga. She had a brother named Te Arapata and Te Arapata Hiria was her elder sister.

When Te Rangi Pikinga was a young woman she was captured by a taua party led by Te Rauparaha of Ngāti Toa. Te Rauparaha's nephew Te Rangihaeata took a fancy to Pikinga and their subsequent marriage effected a peace treaty between Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Toa. The marriage laid the foundations of Ngāti Toa occupation of the Kapiti Coast.

As a peace-bride Te Rangi Pikinga's marriage maintained and secured the occupation rights and mana of Ngāti Apa and provided mutual protection of her tribe's Rangitikei and Manawatu lands. In this sense,Te Rangi Pikinga was a symbolic ' pou' between Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Toa. Te Rangihaeata would refer to her as his 'pou rohe' meaning she was a critical link between the tribes. Indeed, on one occasion Te Rangi Pikinga agreed to stay at Rangitikei as a boundary post to protect Ngāti Apa at Whangaehu.¹

Te Rangi Pikinga shared the stormy life of Te Rangihaeata, whom she survived. He was exiled to Poroutawhao, between Levin and Foxton, where he died in 1855.² It is not known when Te Rangi Pikinga died, only that she lived out her last years at Poroutawhao. It is thought that Te Rangi Pikinga was deceased by 1868.³

NM