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Ngati HeiNgati Hei's past stretches from Kupe to Cook and beyond. Archaeologists believe the Whitianga rohe has been populated for a thousand years, making it one of the oldest inhabited sites in the country. The tribe traces its roots to the arrival of Kupe, the great navigator, who sailed from Tahiti to Aotearoa in 950AD and whose presence is commemorated in place names around the rohe. Ngati Hei is named for the esteemed spiritual tauira (authority) Hei, who sailed to Aotearoa on the waka, Te Arawa. The tribe's history includes much suffering at the hands of raiding parties who repeatedly stripped the peaceable seafaring people of their assets and slaughtered them with muskets. Ngati Hei were among the first Maori to encounter Pakeha when British explorer Captain Cook sailed into the Great Bay of Hei in 1769. The colonisation that followed brought further conflict, with land being taken for timber harvest, gum digging, and settlement. More recently, Ngati Hei, which today numbers just 300, has battled to reclaim land through the Waitangi Tribunal.
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