Whakapapa: Hoani Waikato
(of the Ngai Te Whatuiapiti tribe of Hawke's Bay)
In the book "Maori Tattoo" by Pakeha ethnologist David Simmons and his Maori informant Ko Te Riria V (The Bush Press, Auckland, 1989), and in other articles by these two, it is claimed that the person called Waikato who signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Mahia is Ko Te Riria Waikato (Tairea) Whakaherehere, the supposed paramount chief of the United Tribes of New Zealand. They claim also that Ko Te Riria V has supposedly in 1988 inherited the mantle of paramount chief of the United Tribes of New Zealand (Te Ariki Taiopuru Ko Huiarau).
Whatever the validity of the claim to paramount status, it was not the fabulous Ko Te Riria Waikato (Tairea) Whakaherehere who signed the Treaty, and not at Mahia. It was certainly Hoani Waikato, from the village of Pukehou in present day Central Hawke's Bay, in the company of his Ngai Te Whatuiapiti kinsmen Te Hapuku and Harawira Mahikai, and they signed the Treaty on 24th June 1840 on board HMS Herald which was anchored off the mouth of the Tukituki river on the southern shores of Hawke's Bay.
Ko Tamatea-Ariki-Nui ko Rongokako ko Tamatea-Pokai-Whenua ko Kahungunu ko Kahukuranui ko Rakaihikuroa ko Taewha ko Takaha ko Hikawera ko Te Whatuiapiti ko Te Wawahanga-o-te-rangi ko Te Rangikawhiuia ko Te Manawaakawa ko Te Taha Tu-o-te-rangi ko Tamaiakina ko Puketapu ko HOANI WAIKATO
