Hurunga-rangi

Ailsa Smith writes that Hurunga-rangi "may have been the Nga Mahanga-a-Tairi woman composer who lived at Puniho in central Taranaki. She was possibly the dead man’s [Ho who was killed by Ngāti Ruanui] wife, or perhaps his mother or sister. As a close female relative it was her role to encourage her people to take revenge on Ho’s killers; as a poet, she accomplished this by appealing to their emotions in a powerfully-worded song."

Biographical sources

• Songs and Stories of Taranaki/He Tuhituhinga Tai Hau-a-uru. Ed. and trans. Ailsa Smith from the writings of Te Kahui Kararehe of Rahotu, Taranaki. Christchurch, N.Z.: Macmillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies, U of Canterbury, 1993. 28.