More Info →Tukere Crescent, Name

Description: Name: Tukere

Suburb, Whakarongo

The crescent is named for Tukere, Whakarongo's second husband. December 2022.

The aerial map is a derivative of the Palmerston North City Council online mapping Geographic Information System (GIS).

To learn about Whakarongo, read this Back Issues article by Karla Karaitiana.

The following history is told by Ngaruma (Ruma) Karaitiana, Whakarongo’s great-great-grandson.

After the death of her first husband, Pokerekere, Whakarongo married Tukere. The couple lived at Te Motu a Poutoa and the Ruahine kāinga. To learn about the Ruahine kāinga, read this Back Issues article by Karla Karaitiana. They had two children, Te Paea and Wirihana Kaimokopuna.

In the early 1820s, Whakarongo and a party, including Tukere, were returning to Manawatū from the battle at Te Horehore Pā in Takapau.

Most of the pā in Tamaki nui-ā-Rua had been abandoned and the people retreated to Te Ahu Tūranga. It was believed that Tukere had been badly injured at Te Horehore and was unable to travel any further, so they made a stand at Te Ruru on the Manawatū River near Kumeroa and Ngāwapūrua.

A taua of Ngāti Kahungunu, allied to Ngāti Whatua and led by Puhara and Te Hapuku of Te Amio-Whenua expedition, ran them down. It is understood that Whakarongo fought in both battles, Te Horehore and Te Ruru. Everyone in the group at Te Ruru were killed except a woman called Wiramina, and Whakarongo.

Due to her rank, moko kauae and demeanor, Whakarongo was captured and taken to Kaipara. There she married a chief of Te Uri-o-Hau branch of Ngāti Whatua and had another family.

When Te Hirawanui Kaimokopuna learned of Tukere's death and his sister's abduction, he took their children, Te Paea and Wirihana Kaimokopuna, as whāngai (to foster and nuture) and raised them as his own.