Ko Whāingaroa (e mōhiotia ana hoki ko Raglan) he tāone takutai whai hītori i te rohe o Waikato, e rongonui ana mō ngā ngaru.
Te Hītori o Mua o te Māori me te Noho a te Pākehā
I mua noa atu i te taenga mai o te Pākehā, i noho te Māori i ngā taha o te tauranga e kīia nei ko Whāingaroa. Ko te tikanga o tēnei ingoa, “te wāhi o te whai roa”, “te kokoru roa” rānei. E maumahara ana te ingoa ki te haerenga me te taenga mai o te waka Tainui i mua i te tau 1858.
I te tau 1854, ka tīmata te noho a te Pākehā i te wā i tīmata ai te kāwanatanga ki te hoko whenua i taua rohe.
I te tau 1858, ka tapaina anō te tāone ko Raglan hei whakanui i a Fitzroy Somerset, te “Lord Raglan” tuatahi, te kaiārahi hōia o Peretānia i te Pakanga o Crimea. I ngaro tōna ringa matau i te Pakanga o Waterloo i te tau 1815. Mai i taua wā, e kīia ana tēnei tāone takutai ko Raglan.
E rongonui ana a Raglan mō te eke ngaru me ōna takutai onepū pango i ahu mai i te puia.
I ngā wā o mua, he kaiahuwhenua, he kaimahi noa hoki tōku whānau. I tēnei rā, kei reira tonu e noho ana tōku whaea me taku teina. I hokona e tōku whaea tētahi toa pukapuka me tētahi whare i te wā e noho ana ahau ki tāwāhi i ngā tau kua hipa. Kei te tipu haere tonu a Whāingaroa hei wāhi mō te hunga kua reti i te mahi, mō ngā pakihi o te rohe, me ngā mahi toi.
Whāingaroa, also known as Rakarana or Raglan, is a historic coastal town in the Waikato Region famous for its surf.
Early Māori History and European Settlement
Long before Europeans arrived, Māori lived around the harbour known as Whāingaroa, which means “the place of the long pursuit” or “long inlet.” The name remembers the journey and arrival of the Tainui waka (canoe) before 1858.
In 1854, European settlement began when the government started buying land in the area.
In 1858, the town was renamed Raglan to honour Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, the British commander during the Crimean War. He lost his right arm at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Since then, this coastal town has been called Raglan.
Raglan is well known for surfing and its volcanic black-sand beaches.
In the past, my family worked as farmers and labourers. Today, my mother and youngest brother still live there. My mother bought a bookshop and a home while I was overseas many years ago. Whāingaroa continues to grow as a place for retirees, local businesses, and the arts.
Hamilton City (the main city in Waikato): Known in Māori as Kirikiriroa, which means “long stretch of gravel.”
Waikato River: Known as Waikato Te Awa
Ruakura
One famous saying of the Waikato tribes shows the close association between people and places. Ruakura literally means red feather in Māori but is used metaphorically to mean a chiefly plume and serves as a powerful symbol of peace. [1]
Literal and Metaphorical Meaning
Chiefly feather: The literal translation is red feather but it represents the chiefly plume worn by people of mana (prestige and authority).
Leadership and strength: Wearing a raukura traditionally reflects leadership, hope, inner strength, and shared vision.
Ruakura is a Māori name meaning a red pit or a gathering place of chiefs. It is also the name of a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand. [1, 2]
Traditional Māori Meanings
The name Ruakura has two main traditional interpretations:
The Red Pit: The word rua means hole or pit and kura means red. This refers to an area where people burned iron oxide to make red ochre paint for sacred carvings and objects. [1]
The Meeting of Chiefs:Rua can mean two and kura refers to the red feathered plumes worn by chiefs. It represents a neutral meeting place where local tribes such as Ngāti Wairere and Ngāti Hauā gathered to talk and solve issues. [1]
Modern Locations and Uses
Today, Ruakura is a well-known area in the Waikato region: [1]
Research Hub: It has hosted government-backed agricultural, soil, and plant research since the late 19th century.
Commercial and Logistics Center: The land is now home to the Ruakura Superhub, an inland port and industrial hub designed to connect freight by road and rail. [1, 2, 3]
Second meaning option for the name Ruakura
Ruakura translates literally to red pit or red hole in Māori (rua meaning hole or pit, and kura meaning red). [1, 2]
Origin of the Name
The Pit:Rua refers to a hole or pit located in the area. [1]
The Colour:Kura refers to the red staining caused by a traditional manufacturing process. [1]
The Process: According to Ngāti Wairere oral history, the site had a pit used to burn raw iron oxide found in local swamps. Heating the iron oxide produced a powdery red pigment. [1, 2]
Kōkōwai (Ochre): This red powder was mixed with water to create kōkōwai, a sacred red ochre. Māori used kōkōwai to paint sacred (tapu) ceremonial objects, wooden carvings, and ancestral remains (kōiwi). [1, 2]
Burning and processing the red iron oxide stained the pit’s earth red, giving the location the enduring name Ruakura. [1, 2]
My family grew up in Ruakura, Hillcrest, Newstead, Silverdale, and near Morrinsville for many years. The male family members were farmers, labourers, and staff who worked with Ruakura Research Centre and Agriculture from the late 1900s. I attached a couple of videos of Ruakura for you to watch if you are not familiar with our Ruakura Inland. There is now one official NZS/Māori sign language concept for this name. However, from my experience as a linguist, there are two different meanings of this name as explained above. The video shows two other sign languages that correctly link to this name.
Ko Waikato te awa Ko Taupiri te maunga Ko Te Wherowhero te tangata1
(Waikato is the river, Taupiri is the mountain, Te Wherowhero is the man.)
The river, the mountain and the human ancestor are all vitally important in defining tribal identity.
This week in Aotearoa (New Zealand) marked Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week), from September 14 to 20, 2026. The theme is understanding the names of towns and cities across Aotearoa and how to pronounce them correctly, including for D/deaf people, D/deaf with disabilities, and other disabled people. We focus on teaching many Turi Māori (Māori D/deaf) to learn te Reo and develop ariā mō te reo tohu Māori (Māori Sign Language Concepts). This helps them understand their iwi, hapū, sub-hapū, myths, and cultural background of their whānau and iwi, along with many other lessons for the next generation. We will explore this more during the week.
Let us learn about our home in Eureka. First, the name. Eureka was not the original name for the tiny townships in the Waikato region. Before the 1860s, Ngāti Hauā called it the GreatPiako Swamp.
Tribes
In later generations, Tainui ancestors founded tribes that spread throughout and beyond the Waikato region. The Ngāti Maniapoto tribe descended from Maniapoto, who with his people settled around Kāwhia and to the south. Ngāti Toarangatira (also known as Ngāti Toa), whose ancestor was Tūpāhau, originally lived at Kāwhia. Ngāti Raukawa, descendants of Raukawa, occupied south Waikato between Maungatautari mountain and Whakamaru, extending north to the Kaimai Range. The ancestor Marutūahu migrated north of Te Aroha mountain and founded several tribes now known as the Marutūahu confederation.
In the Waikato basin, the Waikato confederation of tribes, including Ngāti Mahuta and others, settled. Ngāti Hauā, descended from Te Ihingaarangi, the elder brother of Maniapoto, established east of the Waikato River. Over centuries, alliances and disputes affected relationships between these tribes.
No specific, officially recorded pre-existing Māori name exists for Eureka in the Waikato. The European settlement and farm estate were named Eureka after the 1865/1874 land confiscations and the area’s draining. [1, 2]
Historical Context of the Area
Ancestral Land: The area originally formed part of the vast Piako Swamp, within the ancestral territory of local iwi such as Ngāti Hauā and other Tainui tribes. [1, 2, 3]
The Land Confiscation: Following the 19th-century conflicts in the Waikato, the Crown confiscated the land in the 1860s. The eastern edge of modern-day Eureka still borders the historic Confiscation Line. [1]
Naming Eureka: The name Eureka itself was applied by European settlers/syndicates (such as Captain William Steele) in the 1870s, derived either from an exclamation upon reaching a local hilltop (“Eureka, I have found it!”) or from a composite of women’s initials from an early picnic party. [1, 2, 3]
The farming area called Eureka was created by reclaiming part of the vast Piako Swamp.
While the immediate fields of Eureka were mostly an unmodified section of the Great Piako Swamp rather than a permanent village site, the surrounding area is rich with Ngāti Hauā history, traditional pā sites, and ancestral boundaries. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
1. Traditional Boundaries & Topography
The Piako Swamp Network: Prior to European drainage, the swampy regions extending into Eureka were an invaluable food source (mahinga kai) for Ngāti Hauā. The complex web of wetlands and streams was heavily used to harvest tuna (eels), waterfowl, and flax. [1, 2]
Te Kaokaoroa o Pātetere: This is the traditional name for the long, sweeping range and ridge systems that define the wider eastern boundary of the Waikato rohe, extending toward the Kaimai ranges. [1, 2]
2. Prominent Nearby Pā Sites
Historically, permanent Ngāti Hauā settlement concentrated on strategic high ground, ridges, and river pathways just outside the deep peat bogs:
Potuwha Pā: Located nearby, Potuwha is considered one of the best-preserved pā sites in the entire Waikato region and holds immense historical significance for Ngāti Hauā.
Tauwhare Pā Sites: Just to the south-east of Eureka lies Tauwhare, a critical strongpoint and historical settlement area for the iwi.
Maungakawa: The nearby Maungakawa ranges housed prominent seasonal and fortified pā positions, acting as high-ground lookouts over the vast wetlands below. [1, 2, 3, 4]
3. Local Hapū & Marae Centres
The Eureka area sits closely within the traditional domains of specific Ngāti Hauā hapū (sub-tribes):
Ngāti Werewere: This hapū traditionally occupied and managed the trails, streams, and resource zones running through the upper Waihou-Piako basin, adjacent to modern-day Morrinsville and Eureka. [1]
Te Iti o Hauā (Tauwhare): Located just down the road from Eureka, this remains the closest active ancestral marae and primary cultural hub for local people today. [1]
Here is my sign in ASL (American Sign Language), which conveys the meaning of discovering Eureka in the video. First, with a closed fist as in ASL ‘E ‘, and secondly, sign as a light bulb flicking on by using the index finger upward as an idea.
