Our Tūpuna
Tūtange Waionui
Tūtange Waionui fought alongside Tītokowaru in the Taranaki wars, and it is said he fired the shot that felled Major von Tempsky at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu on 7 September 1868.
In 1894, after Hukatere came under tapu, he and his wife Ngaati crossed over and founded this pā on the whenua of Te Pukeatua. He died in January 1915 and is buried here, among his people.
In later life he was photographed in full dress — said to be the image of the Māori warrior on the New Zealand shilling.
At the pā's 115th anniversary in 2009, a reproduction of his 1895 letter was gifted back to the marae, and a plaque in his honour was unveiled.
Te Hītori
The loss and the return
In 1865, under muru raupatu, some 352,000 acres of Ngāti Ruanui land were confiscated. The people held on — to each other, and to what remained. In 2003, a settlement with the Crown marked a new chapter. It was into that in-between time, in 1894, that Tūtange Waionui brought his whānau here and founded a pā — a place to stand.
Timeline
Our history
- 1865Muru raupatu: about 352,000 acres of Ngāti Ruanui land are confiscated.
- 1890Taiporohēnui wharenui built — the ancestral heart of the marae.
- 1894Tūtange Waionui founds the pā; the Putoetoe wharekai dates from the same era.
- 1895The Crown grant of Te Pukeatua is recorded in Tūtange Waionui's letter — the whenua beneath the marae.
- 1900A school opens at the pā, and moves within the year to Meremere, Ōhāngai.
- 1933Electricity reaches the pā.
- 1940sThe peak years: more than 300 people, over 20 houses, 500 acres farmed. The Ladies Committee is the heart of the marae.
- 1946Water comes to the pā; the phone follows in 1952.
- 1960sWork draws whānau to the Pātea freezing works and dairy factories; fewer than 40 remain.
- 1980Te Moengaroa becomes the urupā, replacing Puke Atua.
- 1994Te Mataura dining room opens, and Kaikaapo Kōhanga Reo begins nurturing the pā's mokopuna.
- 2003–04Taiporohēnui refurbished; the new century of care begins. (Same year, the Ngāti Ruanui settlement marks the return.)
- 2009Water bore drilled; the 115th anniversary brings the 1895 letter home and unveils the plaque for the tūpuna.
- 2010New ablutions block opened.
- 2020Provincial Growth Fund renovation across four Ngāti Ruanui marae, including Pariroa.
- 2026The trustees adopt Pariroa Pā 2050 — the intergenerational plan for the pā's next chapter.
- TodayThree whānau homes on the pā, a modern drinking-water plant, kōhanga reo, and a plan that carries the marae toward 2050.
