Taarewaanga Marae has been used as a meeting place since approximately 1900-05 when out Tupuna Kite shifted his house [later named Te Rau-A-Te-Moa] from Haerehuka, [about 200 meters distance on the East bank of the Waipā Awa] after a land dispute with his Aunt Kahira Maratini. Māori Land Court [Ōtorohanga Minute Book 31 October 1890, p. 177] evidence from Pōnui Maratini and others show however that Taarewaanga was a kāinga shared between Ngāti Rungaterangi and Ngāti Hinewai amongst others from much earlier times.

Our Taarewaanga Marae elders and Trustees believe that we have a special relationship with the Taniwha ‘Waiwaia’ who is our Kaitiaki of the Waipā Awa. Waiwaia is known to have a lair near Taarewaanga, but has not been seen there for some considerable time. We therefore acknowledge that we have a responsibility to develop our marae and its environs and in so doing affect the state of the immediately adjacent River, with a view to extending the ‘ripple’ effect further along the Waipa’s banks.

In the 1950’s and 60’s there was a significant move from Māori Affairs to have Māori reservations established. A group from the marae pushed for the Marae to become a reservation, against a number of objections. On 26 May 1960, the Marae was gazetted through the Māori Land Court as “a Māori reservation for the purpose of a meeting place for the common use and benefit of the members of the Paretekawa hapū of the Ngāti Maniapoto tribe.” The standalone acknowledgement of Ngāti Pare-Te-Kawa is understood to be due to Kite’s strong assertion of the hapū and contradicts Māori Land Court documentation that the original owner, Kite’s adoptive mother, gave as her primary hapū Ngāti Hinewai, Ngāti Matakore and Ngāti Rungaterangi.

At a meeting of the Taarewaanga Marae Trustees on January 28 2001, it was resolved that the beneficiaries of the Marae change from solely Ngāti Paretekawa to “all tangata whenua i.e. those of Ngāti Maniapoto iwi who belong to the Ōtorohanga district and their descendants in particular Ngāti Hinewai, Ngāti Urunumia, Ngāti Matakore, Ngāti Apakura and Ngāti Taiwa hapū, including but not limited to the members of the Ngāti Paretekawa hapū.”

This website hereforth refers to all beneficiaries of our Marae as whānau.

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