Where did Pōtatau Te Wherowhero grow up and live?

📍Ngāruawāhia, Waikato, New Zealand

1800 – 1860

“Ko au ko Pōtatau Te Wherowhero. I was born around 1800 of Waikato and Ngāti Mahuta descent, and I became the first Māori King — Te Kīngi Māori — in 1858 at Ngāruawāhia, where the Waikato and Waipā rivers meet. The Kīngitanga movement was not rebellion against the Crown. It was a response to the land sales that were stripping Māori of their foundation — their whenua, their identity, their future. We sought a king as the Pākehā had a queen, to stand as a symbol of Māori unity and a barrier against the loss of land. Ngāruawāhia was and remains the heart of the Kīngitanga — the sacred meeting place of rivers and peoples. I died in 1860, only two years into my reign, but the movement I led has never died.”

👍 LovedNgāruawāhia and the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā rivers — the most sacred site of the Kīngitanga. The unity of Waikato hapū that the Kīngitanga represented. The dignity of a response to colonisation that chose organisation over despair.

👎 DislikedThe land sales that threatened everything. The Crown's refusal to recognise the Kīngitanga as a legitimate political authority. The knowledge that the movement I founded would face great trials after my death.

Map showing where Pōtatau Te Wherowhero lived — Ngāruawāhia, Waikato, New Zealand

🗺️ Approximate location today

Street view of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero's home at Ngāruawāhia, Waikato, New Zealand

📍 Street view today

Sources: Belich, J. The New Zealand Wars (1986), Auckland University Press; Mahuta, R. The Maori King Movement (1995), University of Waikato; King, M. Te Puea (1977), Hodder & Stoughton