Tāraia Ngākuti Te Tumuhuia was an important chief of the Marutūāhu people of Hauraki. His Ngāti Tamaterā whakapapa included Ngāti Kiriwera and Ngāti Kahuwhatiki. His father was Te Kaharunga and his mother was Rewa, a daughter of Te Rangitūmamao.

Te Tumuhuia had kāinga at Te Puru, Waiomu and Ōhinemuri and was known to be cautious in all his dealings with Pākehā.¹ He refused to sign Te Tiriti o Waitangi and claimed instead his right to resolve all disputes by agreement or force, in the style of his ancestors.

From the 1820s, Te Tumuhuia was a feared war chief and an esteemed tribal leader. In almost constant battle from an early age, he was instrumental in developing a programme for his people to collect arms and gunpowder to protect his estates. Te Tumuhuia’s many war campaigns include the 1831 sieges on Kāi Tahu pā with Te Rauparaha, the most famous of which left 600 Kāi Tahu dead at Kaiapoi.

Te Tumuhuia died in 1872 and was thought to be aged about 80 years.

Lindauer’s posthumous portrait is likely based on a photograph of taken sometime between1860 and1872 by an unknown photographer. The photograph shows Te Tumuhuia wearing a kaitaka aronui over European clothing and holding a taiaha.

Lindauer, as is often the case, demonstrated some artistic licence in the painting, depicting Te Tumuhuia with a naked torso, wearing a piupiu and holding a toki pātītī instead of the taiaha.

Lindauer’s rendering of Te Tumuhuia in a landscape setting, eschewing European dress, with raised weapon, his face entirely covered by his mataora staring directly at the viewer underscores Te Tumuhuia’s standing as a fearsome and unrelenting fighting chief.