Te Weherua

Portrait of the South Sea islander Taweiharooa in the Bern Historical Museum, painted by John Webber (1751–1793), 1793

Te Weherua , also Tiarooa , in older spelling Taweiharooa , Te Waiharua (* around 1760 in New Zealand , † around 1780 in Huahine ) was a Māori who came on James Cook's ship on his third voyage .

history

Te Weherua, son of a Māori chief who perished in one of the local wars and a highly respected Māori woman, had already visited Cook's ship on May 26, 1773 on the occasion of Cook's first voyage to the South Seas and arrived in February 1777 at the age of 17 or 18 Queen Charlotte Sound as an associate member on board Resolution , Cook's ship on its third voyage to the Pacific. Omai , Cook's Tahitian translator, had become acquainted with Te Weherua in Ship Cove , a small cove on Queen Charlotte Sound. Both had to convince Cook to take the young man with them on the further journey to the Society Islands. Due to his rank as the son of a chief, however, he could not act as a servant of Grandma's, for this both a 10 to 12 year old boy named Koa (also Coaa , Loa ) was given. The settlement of New Zealand was initiated by the Māori from Eastern Polynesia and is strongly connected to their mythology and tradition. Hawaiki is the Māori name for this mythical land, for which Cook offered the opportunity for the first time in many centuries to return to the east-northeast. It was clear to those involved that there might be no return to New Zealand.

With the resolution he sailed to Huahine , one of the Society Islands and Omai's home, where he and his younger companion Koa had to leave the ship. Te Weherua's, Koas and Omai's biographies are lost after they land on Huahine. The last reliable contemporary exploration is by William Bligh der Bounty 1788/89, who reported that both Māori died in the early 1780s, the child Koa probably from grief. However, they probably died two years after arriving in 1778 or 1779.

During the trip he was an informant on various māorical issues, but is not considered a reliable source as much of it was based on hearsay. In Cook's diaries a change in his attitude towards the Māori can be noted, which he now viewed more critically.

Today Te Weherua and Koa still appear in modern poems. John Webber , the expedition painter on Cook's third expedition to the South Seas, made an oil painting of Te Weherua, this portrait can be seen today in the Bernisches Historisches Museum .

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  Probable migration of the Polynesians and settlement of New Zealand by the Māori.

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  Cook's sea routes, in blue the third sea voyage that Te Weherua made from New Zealand to Tahiti.

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  Port of Huahine around 1777 with Resolution and Discovery , the last stage in life of Te Weherua, contemporary color drawing by John Cleveley the Younger .

literature

• Hilary Mitchell, John Mitchell: Te Tau Ihu O Te Waka a Maui. A History of Māori of Nelson and Marlborough. Huia, Wellington 2004, ISBN 1-86969-087-7 , Volume 1, pp. 191-192, 195-198. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Vincent O'Malley: Haerenga: Early Māori Journeys Across the Globe . Bridget Williams Books, May 4, 2015, ISBN 978-0-908321-19-3 , pp. 3–5.
• Te Weherua (or Tiarooa) . In: Max Quanchi, John Robson (Ed.): Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands. Scarecrow 2005, ISBN 0-8108-5395-7 , p. 190.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} family tree in: Mitchell, 2004, pp. 191–192.
2. ↑ John Beaglehole : The Life of Captain James Cook. Victoria University Press, Wellington 2006, p. 523. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
3. ^ Carl Walrond: Māori overseas - 18th- and 19th-century travelers, p. 1. In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Date: September 22, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
4. ^ Richard M. Connaughton: Omai. The Prince Who Never Was. Timewell Press, London 2005, ISBN 1-85725-205-5 .
5. ↑ Robert Sullivan : Voice Carried my family. Auckland University Press Auckland 2005, ISBN 1-86940-337-1 , therein: The Great Hall u. a.