Rāwiri Te Eke Tu-o-te-Rangi signed the East Coast sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi between 5 and 12 May 1840 at Tūranga (now Gisborne). He was a Ngāti Oneone rangatira (chief) of the Te Aitanga a Hauiti iwi (tribe). He had two sons with his principal wife Riria Taheke, Hirini Te Kani and Rutene Te Eke. Hirini succeeded Te Kani a Takirau as the leading rangatira on the East Coast.
In the 1820s a force from Tūranga and Hauiti led by Te Kani a Takirau attempted to raise a siege of Okurarenga (later renamed Kaiuku) pā (fortified village) at Māhia. The attackers were Ngāti Raukawa and either Tūhoe or Ngāti Tūwharetoa. When Riria, Hirini and others were captured, Rāwiri secured their release in exchange for a pounamu mere (greenstone club) called Pahikauri.
In 1832 or 1883, the pioneer Tūranga trader John Williams Harris married Rāwiri’s cousin, Tukura.
When land purchase agent Donald McLean visited Tūranga in 1851, Rāwiri and the other Tūranga rangatira met to discuss the possibility of a European township being founded in Poverty Bay. Rāwiri was among those who opposed this suggestion and no decision was made.
Rāwiri died in 1852 and was buried across the river from Kaiti. The Ngāti Oneone marae (meeting house) Te Poho-o-Rāwiri was named after him.