Te Hāpuku
? – 1878Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Ngāti Kahungunu
- Date
- 1877
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 850 x 700 mm
- Other titles
- Te Hapuku, [title, 2026]Te Hapuku, [1930 catalogue]Te-Hapuku, [Deed of gift, 1915]Te Hapuku, [1901 catalogue]Oil Painting of the Maori Chief Te Hapuku, [copyright certificate, 1902]Hapuku, chief of the Ngatikahungunu, H.B., [Lindauer's inscribed title]
- Inscriptions
- Front, LL: G. Lindauer 1877Back, LC: Hapuku, chief of the "Ngatikahungunu", H.B.
- Takiwā / region
- Takitimu
- Credit line
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mr H E Partridge, 1915
- Accession no.
- 1915/2/42
Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti hereditary chief Te Hāpuku, also known as Te Ikanui-o-te-moana, was a Ngāti Kahungunu leader of influence based on the Māhia Peninsula.
His personal household was large. Te Heipora, his principal wife, became his spouse in the late 1820s. She was the mother of his recognised heir, Karanama (Cranmer). His other wives were Whaitiri, the mother of Ekengārangi and Arapata; and Hinerangi, the mother of Tangatakē and Te Pōhuka. Other sons were Te Whakahemo and Nēpia. In 1850, Te Hāpuku was reported by missionary William Colenso to have eight wives; the same year, administrator Donald McLean reported that he had a total of 10.1
On a political visit to the Bay of Islands in 1838, Te Hāpuku signed He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene. He also signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi on 24 June 1840 at the Tukituki River, witnessed by Major Thomas Bunbury.
The death of his rival Te Pareihe in 1844 affirmed Te Hāpuku’s high rank within his iwi and he was subsequently treated by the government as the pre-eminent figure in Hawke’s Bay. In 1850, McLean initially liaised with Te Hāpuku exclusively when seeking land for Crown purchase, provoking the envy and hostility of other chiefs.
A willing vendor, Te Hāpuku believed that Pākehā settlement was in the interest of his people, creating a market for their produce and a source of goods they sought. He went on to cause considerable controversy when he sold land without the knowledge of the inhabitants and failed to distribute funds received to the affected parties. Personal debt was partly to blame and by the late 1850s Te Hāpuku had lost much of his following.
Te Hāpuku died on 23 May 1878 at Te Hauke, having been ill for the last five weeks of his life. As he lay dying, he asked to be placed so that his eyes should close watching the sacred Kahurānaki hill. His tangi took place on 31 May and was attended by 400 mourners, Māori and Pākehā. The service was conducted by Reverend Samuel Williams.2
This Lindauer portrait is based on an 1870s photograph of Te Hāpuku by the Napier photographer Samuel Carnell. In the painting, Te Hāpuku, mataora on full display, is dramatically lit against a dark background. He is wearing a korowai hukahuka over which a second cloak, a kaitaka aronui, is worn upside-down in order to reveal the intricate tāniko on the lower edge of the garment. Te Hāpuku is depicted with a ‘Shenandoah’ beard, but according to Victor Lindauer, son of the artist, what appears to be hair under his chin was actually a fur collar.3 Another portrait by Lindauer of Te Hāpuku in the Mitchell Library, Sydney clearly records this collar.4
Lindauer also painted Te Hāpuku holding a large mere pounamu, a valuable taonga absent in Carnell’s photograph.
Angela Ballara, ‘Te Hāpuku’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t28/te-hapuku, accessed 21 July 2023.
Mary Boyd, ‘Williams, Samuel’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1w25/williams-samuel, accessed 21 July 2023.
Victor Wilhelm Lindauer, ‘How papa painted his first Maori picture in 1876’, Lindauer Family Papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. MS-Papers-4369.
‘Mr Hapuku’, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, DG 302, https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/collection-items/mr-hapuku, accessed 12 August 2026.
