Born at Tamahere on the Horotiu plains, Wiremu Tāmihana Tarapīpipi Te Waharoa was the second son of Te Waharoa of Ngāti Hauā, whose territory took in a large tract of land in the northern Waikato. His mother was Rangi Te Wiwini. Tāmihana’s main kāinga was at Matamata in the northeast region of Tainui bordering the Kaimai Range.

Tāmihana married Ita, daughter of Pohepohe of Matamata. She died in May 1840 at Te Tāpiri. Tāmihana later married Paretekanawa (also called Wikitōria), another daughter of Pohepohe, and they had at least three sons and a daughter.

Tāmihana participated in the fighting expeditions with Ngāti Hauā through the 1820s into the 1830s.

In 1835, Tāmihana met the Reverend Alfred Brown of the Church Missionary Society and was later baptised by him at Tauranga. He was given the name Wiremu Tāmihana (William Thompson) and embarked on a life of teaching and preaching in the Tauranga and Matamata districts. He put the Christian teachings he had embraced into practice within a traditional Māori framework and guided his people to do likewise. He also learned to read and write in Māori within six months of being taught.¹

In 1838, Tāmihana inherited the mantle of leadership from his father and used his tribal influence to advocate for the peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict with Te Arawa. The establishment of a new settlement at Te Tāpiri, near Matamata, gave Tāmihana the opportunity to build a Christian community, a project he repeated at Pēria in 1846.

He was a leading advocate for the Kīngitanga and blessed the first Māori king, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero.² For this reason, Tāmihana is often remembered as ‘the kingmaker’.

Despite his moderate and peaceable nature, Tāmihana was distrusted by settlers and the government. He died in 1866, a little more than two years after the wholesale confiscation of his lands by the Crown.

Lindauer’s portrait is based on a photograph by Charles Henry Monkton, taken in 1865, the year before Tāmihana died. He is seated, holding a Bible on his lap wearing a dark shirt, belted at the waist over a woven blanket. According to the Wellington Independent, it was one of three photographs Monkton took of the rangatira on the banks of the Waihou River. This one was intended to show ‘a more peaceable attitude’, in another ‘he is presented as a leader of his forces, with rifle and equipments’, and the third ‘surrounded by his friends, Messrs Firth, Graham, and Dr Sam, with a Pai Marire leader in the foreground.’³

Lindauer opted to present Tamihana in the ‘peaceable attitude’ but softens the squint captured in the photograph – though staring directly at the viewer, he still appears wary. Across his chest, Tāmihana wears a leather belt ornamented with silver panels joined by rings, worn military style like a bandolier – a symbol of a fighter.

Lindauer inscribed the back of this portrait with the title ‘Chief Wiremu Tamihana Waharoa The King Maker’.