NENE, TAMATI WAKA (? 1780-1871). The son of Tapua, a noted Ngati-Hao warrior of Hokianga, Nene was descended from ancestors (Nuku-tawhiti and Ruanui) who arrived in New Zealand by the canoe Mamari. Tapua, who was both a warrior and a tohunga, was a man of powerful mental qualities. He married Te Kawehau, and their family consisted of one daughter, Tari, who married Te Wharerahi (q.v.), and four sons: Patuone (q.v.), Nene, Te Anga and Te Ruanui. The last two were killed in battle. By a later marriage Te Kawehau had a son, Wi Waka Turau. Tapua was fishing off Matauri on 27 Nov 1769, when Cook's ship Endeavour appeared off Cape Brett, and he commanded the first canoe (Te Tumuaki) which went off, with 80 men, to see the navigator. As chief of the Ngati-Rangi hapu of Ngapuhi he was trained to arms early, and accompanied his father in the campaigns of the early nineteenth century, in which he developed as a brave fighter and a good leader. When a young man, he chased and killed a Maori who had assaulted a pakeha. In 1819-20 he accompanied the Ngapuhi taua in the Amiowhenua expedition to Taranaki and Whanganui, and had command of it on the return.

Nene took part in Hongi Hika's campaign against the Hauraki tribes in 1822, and later in the victorious campaign of the northern tribes with muskets against the people of Taranaki and Wellington. He visited Port Jackson in the Enterprise to hand over the convicts from the brig Wellington (1827). He early befriended the pakeha, and in 1829 shot dead a Ngapuhi who had participated in the sack of the brig Hawes at Whale Island. He was one of the earliest chiefs to be baptised by the missionaries (when he took the names of Tamati Waka, i.e., Thomas Walker, after a supporter of the mission at Stockton-upon-Tees). In 1827, when the Wesleyan mission at Whangaroa was attacked, Nene, Patuone and Te Wharerahi led a force to its rescue and removed the missionaries to Mangungu. Nene and Patuone also exacted punishment for the murder of a Christian native at Mangamuka, where Nene stormed the pa, killed 12, and took the rest prisoners, including the leader, Kaitoke. He assisted Moetara to exact restitution from the Rarawa raiders of the schooner Fortitude.

Nene often came to the assistance of the British Resident, and in 1840 was one of the most convincing supporters of the Treaty of Waitangi, which he signed amongst the first on 6 Feb. In the war of 1845 he was the firm friend and ally of the pakeha. Owing to Heke's relative Hongi Hika having some years earlier insulted his matua, Te Tihi, Nene after the cutting down of the flagstaff took the field against Heke with a well-armed force. After the British reverse at Omapere he accompanied a military force up the Waikare inlet against the Kapotai tribe, whose leader, Hauraki (a brother-in-law of F. E. Maning) was mortally wounded. At Te Ahuahu Heke was defeated and wounded. At Ohaeawai Nene tried unsuccessfully to dissuade Colonel Despard from making a costly attack. In Jan 1846 Nene went with Grey and Te Wherowhero to Wellington to satisfy himself about the release of Te Rauparaha, for whom they had acted as surety. His services were recognised by the British Government, and he was granted a pension of £100 a year by the Colonial government. The Church Missionary Intelligencer (1850) states that Nene devoted his first year's pension to the erection of a flourmill as a peace offering for the benefit of his former enemies. Sir George Grey appointed Nene one of his esquires on his investment as a knight (Dec 1848); and when he returned as Governor for a second term he brought a chased silver goblet as a gift from Queen Victoria. In later years Nene often attended levees at Auckland, where he was honoured by pakeha and Maori. He died on 4 Aug 1871, and at his own request was buried at Bay of Islands. His epitaph reads: 'te hoa o te Kawanatanga me te matua o te Pakeha' (the friend of the Government and the parent of the Europeans). The government memorial, erected later, describes Nene as 'the first to welcome the Queen's sovereignty in New Zealand; a consistent supporter of the pakeha.' Nene's wife Taipora and their two daughters (one of whom was the wife of Wi Patene) died in 1837. A niece married G. F. Russell, of Hokianga.

NZ. Archives, B.R. 1 and 2; Legislative Council of NZ, ordinances 1847, viii, no. 15; S. P. Smith, Wars; J. K. Davis; Webster (p); Cowan, Wars (p); Gisborne; Carleton; Buller; Morley; Buick, First War (p); Waka Maori, 1871, p. 8; Williams papers; Bowen; N.Z. Herald, 9 Aug 1871, 19 Sep 1872; New Zealander, 26 Sep 1857. Portrait: Cowan, Sketches.

Reference: Volume 2, page 62

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