📍Hokianga, Northland, New Zealand
1780 – 1871“Ko au ko Tāmati Wāka Nene. I was born in the 1780s in the Hokianga, of Ngāti Hao and Ngāpuhi descent, and I spent my life navigating the most complex political moment in Māori history — the arrival of the Pākehā and the transformation of the world I had been born into. I signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840 and I supported the Crown's authority, not because I was naïve about what colonisation meant, but because I believed that working within the new order was the path most likely to protect my people. I fought on the Crown's side in the Northern War against Hōne Heke, a decision that divided my world. The Hokianga was always home — its great harbour, its kauri forests, the people who had lived there since before memory. I died in 1871, having seen more change than any person should have to witness.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today
Sources: Cowan, J. The New Zealand Wars (1922), Government Printer; Wards, I. The Shadow of the Land (1968), Government Printer; Salmond, A. Between Worlds (1997), Viking