Rep your iwi with these ataahua earrings.

Kahungunu features the Ngati Kahungunu kowhaiwhai, Ngaru, representing the cutting of the waves as the waka travelled through the sea.

Ngāti Kahungunu is the third largest tribal group in Aotearoa, created from many hapu, all of whom are descendants of Kahungunu.

Kahungunu was the son of Tamatea Ure Haea and Iwipupu, born at Tinotino Pa in Orongotea/Kataia.

His father moved to Tauranga and that's where Kahungunu grew up.

Tall and handsome, he was known for his leadership.

He helped plan and build whole villages, irrigated crops, gathered kai, and was talented in the arts of carving, tattooing, weaving and canoe making.

Kahungunu headed south, leaving his first wife Hinetapu and their children behind.

As he continued his long journey southwards, Kahungunu met and married several other women, and had many children.

But he had heard rumours of Rongomaiwahine’s beauty and high rank, so he headed to Nukutaurua.

But on arrival he found that she was married to Tamatakutai.

In an attempt to win favour with her iwi, he gathered heaps of fern root, tied them up and rolled them down the hill.

There were so many that it became like a landslide, blocking the doors of the whare.

Kahungunu then went up a hill and watched the shags diving. Then Kahungunu went diving, holding his breath for as long as the shags had done. He filled many kete with enough pāua for all the whole village. When he surfaced from his last dive, his chest was covered with pāua, which impressed everyone.

Having gained the approval of Rongomaiwahine’s people, Kahungunu planned to split up Rongomaiwahine and her husband.

One night he farted near the sleeping couple, causing an argument between them. In the morning Kahungunu went out with her husband on the canoe.

After a few trips Kahungunu took over the steering, and capsized it on a large wave. Tamatakutai fell out and, unable to swim, was drowned.

Kahungunu asked Rongomaiwahine to do his hair for him.

As she was putting up his topknot, the tie broke. Kahungunu took from his plaited belt some flax that had been grown at Kawhainui, near Tauranga.

After softening the flax in water, Rongomaiwahine used it to tie his topknot. Kahungunu then stood up, and facing north said: E te pūtiki wharanui o Tamatea i mahue atu rā i runga o Tauranga. Here is the binding broad-leaved flax of Tamatea that was left at Tauranga.

It was from this remark that Rongomaiwahine and her people finally knew the true identity of Kahungunu, and he became her husband.

They settled at Maungakāhia, their pā at Māhia, where Kahungunu eventually died.

Made from perspex and stainless steel hooks.

Measures 5cm x 5cm.