Te Pahi
Quick Facts
Biography
Te Pahi (Tippahee in traditional orthography) (?–1810) was a Māori tribal leader and traveller from New Zealand. He was from the Ngāpuhi iwi.
In 1805 Te Pahi was the first influential Māori leader to visit Port Jackson (Sydney) where he met Samuel Marsden. In 1806, during the same visit, he met New South Wales Governor Captain Philip Gidley King, who presented him with a medal which was later lost but then rediscovered and put up for auction in 2014. Te Pahi was incorrectly blamed for the burning of the Boyd in 1809 and his pā was bombarded by several whaling ships in retaliation in 1810. Te Pahi was wounded in the attack but his death several weeks later was as the result of other wounds he received in a conflict with Māori from the Whangaroa region over the Boyd affair.