Riwai Matene Te Wi / Mātene Te Whiwhi?

Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.


Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
19Sheet 7 — The Herald (Bunbury) SheetTe WiRiwai Matene Te Wi/Mātene Te Whiwhi?Ngāti Toa? Ngāti Tama?Cloudy Bay 17 June 1840

Riwai Matene Te Wi signed the Herald (Bunbury) sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 17 June 1840 at Cloudy Bay in Marlborough. He may have been a rangatira (chief) from Ngāti Toa or Ngāti Tama. He married Rawinia Ruakino at Komangarautawhiri, Porirua in 1845.

He may have been Mātene Te Whiwhi, the nephew of Te Rauparaha. [1] Te Whiwhi attended the Kohimarama conference. On 11 July 1860 he spoke about the history of Pākehā in New Zealand and how the races should be united under the Queen. [2]


[1] University of Waikato, Index of Māori names, http://www.waikato.ac.nz/library/maori-names-index/M3.shtml

[2] Proceedings of of the Kohimarama Conference, Comprising Nos. 13 to 18 of the ‘Maori Messenger’, Wednesday 11 July 1860, p. 20 


If you have more information about this treaty signatory please add a community contribution below or contact us at [email protected].

Community contributions

No comments have been posted about Riwai Matene Te Wi / Mātene Te Whiwhi?

What do you know?

Can you tell us more about the information on this page? Perhaps you have a related experience you would like to share?

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Comments will be reviewed prior to posting. Not all comments posted. Tell me more...