Tūranga Library - Maori Name History

Photo courtesy: Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Tūranga, Paikea and Ngāi Tahu

Tūranga is a name that carries with it considerable responsibility.

Tūranga speaks of whakapapa across generations, connections to the north and out to Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and the wider Pacific.

Tūranga is the name of a settlement located on the East Coast of the North Island. It is the homeland of the Ngāi Tahu ancestor, Paikea, who made his way there on the back of a whale from the ancient homeland of Hawaiki. Paikea had two sons, Whatiua Te Ramarama and Tahu Pōtiki. Whatiua Te Ramarama and his wife Hemo had three children. The eldest child Porouraki, is the founding ancestor of East Coast iwi Ngāti Porou.

Whatiua Te Ramarama died and so Tahu Pōtiki, the brother took Hemo as his wife. They also had three children. Ngāi Tahu descend from the union of Tahu Pōtiki and Hemo.

Ngāi Tahu's relationship to the people of Ngāti Porou and Tūranga is found in the saying, 'Tokotoru a te tuakana, tokotoru a te taina, ko ngā tokoono ēnei a Hemo i noho ai i Tūranga', meaning 'Hemo the mother of Ngāti Porou and Ngāi Tahu - all who came from Tūranga'.

This name also has significance due to the building’s location at the north-east corner of Cathedral Square.

The name given to the Square is Whiti-reia, and as the narrative written by Dr Te Maire Tau discusses, Whiti-reia is the name of the land on which St Stephen’s Church at Tuahiwi sits; it was also the name given to the Vicarage and to a garden and spring nearby at Tuahiwi. The name of Paikea’s whare (house) was also Whiti-reia.