Kahupeka

Kahupeka (sometimes referred to as Kahu, Kahupekapeka or Kahukeke) was a Maori healer in the 1400s who helped pioneer herbal medicine in New Zealand.^[1] She is remembered in oral history as a Tainui explorer who travelled the North Island, naming several locations and experimenting with herbal medicines.^[2][3]

Life

Kahupeka's journey, according to Pei Te Hurinui Jones.^[4]

1

Karioi

2

Kāwhia

3

Mount Pirongia

4

Te Aroha

5

Whakamaru

6

Hurakia

7

Rangitoto

8

Pureora

9

Puke-o-kahu

45km
30miles

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

  

According to Pei Te Hurinui Jones, Kahupeka was a daughter of Rangaiho, son of Hape, son of Ngare, son of Rakatāura, a tohunga of the Tainui waka and his wife Kahukeke, daughter of Hoturoa, leader of the Tainui waka.^[5] She grew up on Karioi and travelled to Kāwhia to marry Ue, the senior male-line descendant of Hoturoa (Jones gives the line of descent as Hoturoa, Hotuope, Hotuāwhio, Hotumatapū, Mōtai, Ue).^[5] Kahupeka had one son by Ue, Rakamaomao.^[5]

After Ue's death, she was grief-stricken and journeyed inland from Kāwhia. While travelling around the Waikato region, she is credited with naming many Waikato landscape features including Mount Pirongia and Te Aroha mountains.^[3][6][5] According to Jones, she first stopped at Mount Pirongia, which she called Pirongia-te-aroaro-o-Kahu ("Smelly-in-front-of-Kahu"). According to Tom Roa, she gave it this name because of symptoms of an illness that she was suffering from, which may have been the after-effects of a miscarriage.^[2] After this, she passed a stream which she named Manga-waero-o-te-aroaro-o-Kahu ("Creek-of-the-dog's-hair-apron-in-front-of-Kahu"), carried on to Te Aroha, which she named Te-Aroha-o-Kahu ("The Love of Kahu").^[5] She decided to settle a little further south at a place that she named Te-Whakamaru-o-Kahu ("The Shelter of Kahu") and gathered the reeds for a house at Te-Whakakākaho-o-Kahu ("The reed-collecting-of-Kahu"), but the reeds were not good enough for building, so she carried on to the mountains west of Lake Taupō, which she named Hurakia-o-Kahu ("Exposing-of-Kahu").^[5] She ran out of food at Maunga-pau-o-Kahu ("Mountain-of-the-starving-of-Kahu"), passed over Rangitoto-o-Kahu ("Bloody-sky-of-Kahu"), fell sick and recovered at Pureora-o-Kahu ("Recovery-of-Kahu") and finally settled and died at Puke-o-Kahu ("Hill-of-Kahu"). After this, her son Rakamaomao returned to Kāwhia.^[4] Some of these claims are disputed, with many believing that it was her son who named Mount Pirongia.^[1]

Stories suggest she experimented with native plants while attempting to treat her illness, specifically harakeke, koromiko, kawakawa, and rangiora.^[2]

According to Ranginui Walker, Kahupeka was the wife of the tohunga Rakatāura, a tohunga, who settled at Rarotonga / Mount Smart (i.e. the woman that Jones calls Kahukeke).^[7] In this version, Rakatāura gives Te Aroha its name after Kahupeka's death in Waikato, in honour of the love he felt for her.^[7]

Recognition

In 2018, the Royal Society Te Apārangi named Kahupeka as one of the 150 women who made 'valuable contributions to expanding knowledge in Aotearoa/New Zealand'.^[1]

In August 2020, the Pūrākau children's series on Māori Television included an episode featuring Kahupeka.^[8]

References

Bibliography

• Jones, Pei Te Hurinui; Biggs, Bruce (2004). Ngā iwi o Tainui : nga koorero tuku iho a nga tuupuna = The traditional history of the Tainui people. Auckland [N.Z.]: Auckland University Press. ISBN 1869403312.
• Walker, Ranginui (2004). "Nga Korero o Nehera". Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou - Struggle Without End (Second ed.). Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Books. p. 46. ISBN 9780143019459.

This page was last edited on 11 February 2024, at 18:54