These are the opening words of the Ngāti Rangiwewehi anthem, ‘E Kimi noa ana’. This, like other Ngāti Rangiwewehi oral traditions, conveys the knowledge and wisdom of our tupuna across and throughout successive generations. Whenever this waiata is recited, it not only magnifies the voices and memories of our tūpuna, it also impels the descendants of those who originally fashioned the waiata, to take action.

Ngāti Rangiwewehi trace their origins to Ohomairangi, a tupuna of Hawaiiki from whom all of the Te Arawa confederation descend. Ngāti Rangiwewehi is an Iwi as derived from the confederated tribes of Te Arawa, and closely identify with those iwi/hapu that descend from the eight children of Rangitihi known as Nga-Pu-Manawa-e-Waru, the eight beating hearts of Rangitihi.

Ngāti Rangiwewehi whakapapa traditions record that Tuhourangi – one of the children of Rangitihi – had a son named Uenukukopako, who in turn had a son called Whakaue- kai-papa. Whakaue-kai-papa married Rangiuru, a woman of rank from Tapuika and their eldest son was Tawakeheimoa.

In time, Tawakeheimoa married Te Aongahoro, and they had Rangiwewehi, from whom the tribe of Ngāti Rangiwewehi descend.