AUTHOR’S NOTE

While the story outline and places named in To Trap a Taniwha are drawn from the oral histories of Hauraki and Tāmaki iwi, the human characters are imaginary. Described as the most notable of Hauraki taniwha, Ureia appears in narratives about Tainui waka and the Waihou River. Ureia became the prized guardian of the descendants of Marutūāhu who settled the shores of Te Tīkapa Moana o Hauraki. The taniwha remains an important emblem of Marutūāhu mana. A striking carved representation of Ureia can be seen in Hotunui, the wharenui housed within Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland Museum. Ureia was depicted as a fish or marine mammal who forewarned his people of danger.

Ngā Oho is one name given to the confederation of hapū that inhabited the pā tūwatawata and village settlements of Tāmaki-makau-rau. On the death of the paramount leader Hua Kaiwaka in the late seventeenth century, the tribal grouping was renamed as Te Waiohua. The slaying of Ureia and the Te Waiohua murder of the Ngāti Maru rangatira Kahurautao sometime later led to revenge attacks by Marutūāhu on the many Te Waiohua volcanic pā, particularly Maungawhau.