Witako Street

Around the beginning of the nineteenth century, Ngatata-i-te-rangi of Te Āti Awa and Whetowheto of Ngāti Ruanui had a son at Pukeariki who they named Wiremu Tako Ngātata. Better known as Wi Tako, he left Taranaki with his father on the Tama-te-uaua migration in 1832 to settle the Wellington region.

Wi Tako became the leader of Te Ātiawa at Kumutoto (central Wellington) and was involved in negotiations with the New Zealand Company agents, receiving a share of the trade goods on behalf of his people, for which the Company claimed they had purchased the whole region.

Wi claimed that his share was only as payment to allow the Tory to anchor. So began a life that variously came into conflict with both Maori and Pākehā. He saw benefit from Pākehā contact, but was also angered by the settlers intolerance and discrimination toward Māori. He upset Pākehā when he gave evidence to the Spain Commission that upheld that land had been taken fraudulently and won compensation. 

Nevertheless he continued to help Pākehā with land deals and supplied food and raupo for buildings. But later a personal deal went sour when he applied for a Crown grant in order to sell a piece of land. The Crown only issued the grant for the duration of his and his wife’s lives after which it would revert to the Crown. In frustration Wi threw the paper down saying “You buy as much as you can of our lands and then try to cheat us out of the rest”.

This precipitated his support of the Māori King movement in 1853. He tried to convince both peoples of the value of the movement. Again he incurred suspicion from both; many settlers thought he was planning an attack on Wellington and later Ngāti Maniapoto accused him of being more loyal to the Pākehā Queen.

In the end he withdrew his support for the King movement in 1864. He continued to assist Donald McLean with land purchases and became a vice-regal companion in 1869 offering advice to the Government. In 1872 he was the first Māori to be appointed to the Legislative Council.

Wi Tako died on 8 November 1887 and was buried at Korokoro with a grand funeral. Later a memorial in the form of a waka  was erected there.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.