Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 06, Issue 01, 1996

6. 1830s: Early European Interactions; Whalers and Missionaries:

6. 1830s: Early European Interactions; Whalers and Missionaries:

This was also the beginning of a period of major cultural transition for the tribes of Te Tau Ihu. New opportunities had emerged a few years previously for the Tainui and Taranaki tribes from right across the region to cultivate and supply European crops (mainly potatoes and corn) and pigs to the burgeoning whaling communities in the Marlborough Sounds. Kehu probably spent some time during the 1830s at Tory Channel and/or Port Underwood at the whaling stations; an entry in Charles Heaphy's journal 7 implies as much. He may have been baptised there. His mother, Matanohinohi, and uncle, Puaha Te Rangi, were certainly people of high birth and seemed to enjoy reasonable freedom of movement even though the Tainui and Taranaki iwi now dominated most of their former territories, at least in the coastal districts of Whakaru, Waimea, Motueka, Te Tai Tapu and Te Tai Poutini. A number of Kurahaupo and Ngai Tahu rangatira were installed as vassal chiefs to hold territories for their captors, 8 and members of Kehu's extended family may have been similarly treated.