Career
Te Awaitaia also witnessed the Māori King Movement in the 1850s, and the New Zealand land wars in the 1860s. He died on 27 April 1866. The monument that stands in Raglan, erected in his honor (on the western side of the harbour by the camping ground), spells his name as "Wiremu Nero Te Awaitaia" – other renderings of Naylor are Near, and Naera.
Ngāti Mahanga, the tribe into which Te Awaitaia was born, was influential in the Waipa Valley and Waitetuna areas near Raglan.
At some point early in Te Awaitaia"s lifetime, his tribe is thought to have driven the Ngati Koata from their lands near Whai-ngaroa (Raglan) Harbour. Te Rauparaha was driven south away from his lands by the Waikato Confederacy and subsequently took control of much of the lower North Island of New Zealan and also carried out various other infamous invasions.
Te Awaitaia took a decisive part in the battle that drove Te Rauparaha south from Kawhia, heroically defeating one of the opposition leaders with an axe (teahatehwa), and obtaining much mana from the battle. He then led a party of 370 warriors that subsequently harried Rauparaha on his flight southwards.
Te Awaitaia was also involved in the Battle of Motunui, which was a famous defeat of the Waikato Tribes.
He was famous for his skillful use of his taiaha (see image) and was a Chief of great influence in the Waikato by the time of the arrival of the first (Methodist) missionaries in the mid-1830s.
