Ka Mate, Ka Ora!
The Spirit of Te Rauparaha
Hēni Collins

	Biographies Maori, History, Biography, NZ Society Price: $39.99 Availability: now Format: 304 pages, soft cover with flaps, 165mm x 230mm ISBN: 978-1-877448-36-2 Add this book to your shopping bag

About the Book

The story of Te Rauparaha and his times continues to intrigue, provoke and inspire Māori and Pākehā alike. 

Hēni Collins describes Te Rauparaha’s life from the time his birth was foretold, through inter-tribal conflict, migration, settlement in the south (Kapiti Island), and into the period of colonization.

Te Rauparaha and his nephew Te Rangihaeata welcomed Europeans living among them in the 1820s and 1830s, for the trade and technology they brought. But they never gave up their rangatiratanga or mana whenua. They tried European systems of justice such as the courts and the Land Commission, but were soon frustrated by the ponderous processes and toothlessness of these bodies. To retain their independence and authority, Ngāti Toa eventually turned to military resistance.

Reappraising original material, including sources in te reo, Hēni Collins enlivens events and adds cultural under­standing and authenticity to a dramatic story of Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Ka Mate, Ka Ora! The Spirit of Te Rauparaha includes comments by kaumātua Te Puoho Kātene and other tribal members, and an epilogue by former Māori All Black Norm Hewitt. New maps show the location of significant sites, and an appendix details their history and what can be seen there today. 

The spirit of Te Rauparaha lives on every time his Ka Mate haka is performed, and his story and example are as vital today as they were in his lifetime.

About the Author

Hēni Collins is a journalist, researcher and community worker. She has a MPhil (Māori Studies) degree on the social psychology and history of Māori/Pākehā identity, and works with a trust helping troubled youth. 

When she began working on this project in 1999, Hēni knew only of her connection to Te Rauparaha through his mother’s side, Ngāti Hūia. She is a descendant of Te Rauparaha’s uncle Hapekitūārangi (Ngāti Raukawa), under whom Te Rauparaha trained in battle as a young man. More recently Hēni discovered that her whānau also descends from Haumia, brother of Mango, from whom Toarangatira descends. Her great-uncle Piwiki Te Horohau carved the first Takapūwāhia wharenui in Porirua in 1901. Hēni has had the support of Ngāti Toa, her hapū of Ngāti Kikopiri, Te Waka Toi and Pātaka Porirua Museum of Arts & Cultures for this project. 

She lives in Wellington and has two tamariki.