Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake (c. 1795 – 13 January 1882), Māori Chief of the Te Āti Awa Tribe, was leader of the Māori forces in the First Taranaki War.
Wiremu Kingi was involved in the major disturbances and migrations caused by the Musket Wars. He and his father probably fought alongside Te Rauparaha who was invading the Manawatu after his defeat and retreat from Kawhia to Waikanae. However, he is mainly associated with Waitara in Northern Taranaki.
In 1839 Colonel William Wakefield toured the area and persuaded the Māori chiefs to sign various deeds that transferred ownership of most of the tribal land to the New Zealand Company.
The Taranaki tribe of Te Āti Awa accepted the changes brought about by the arrival of the Pākehā and their new government as they were ken to benefit from modern technology and trade opportunites. In May 1840 their chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi and in 1843–1844 they built a large and beautiful church for the missionaries. On 31 January 1842 the whole of Northern Taranaki from Cape Egmont northwards to the Tongaporutu River was purchased by the crown from Kati Te Wherowhero, who later became the first Maori king. The deed was printed in both English and Maori. The price paid was 150 pounds, 2 horses, 2 saddles, 2 bridles and 100 blankets. The land sold to the government included all the land around Waitara which was under the mana of Te Wherowhero. However, disenchantment began when the Land Commissioner, William Spain, awarded the New Plymouth settlers 200 km² of tribal land around New Plymouth. Wiremu Kingi wrote to Governor Robert FitzRoy making it clear that they would not yield tribal lands, particularly around Waitara,even though it had been abandoned by most of the tribe. Their case was weakened in because the bulk of the tribe were then living around Waikanae about 250 km to the south and had not lived at Waitara for 20 years. The only tribal member actually living on the land were keen to sell. However, despite opposition from the Government,and to force a confrontation, they returned to Taranaki in 1848 and settled around Waitara.
Over the next 11 years the government and settlers made numerous attempts to acquire more of the tribal land, but were restricted to about 20 km² around New Plymouth. Wiremu Kingi remained firm in his refusal to part with any of the tribal land. Gradually relations between the two peoples deteriorated.
In 1859 another tribal chief, Teira, made an offer of some his land to Governor Thomas Gore Browne. Tiera was the owner of the particular block and had stayed behind to retain his mana over the land when Kingi and most of the tribe had fled south. Kingi who had lost all control of the land due to his long absence. In Moari lore his ahi kaa(cooking fires) had been well extinguished. Kingi tried to intimidate Tiera by killing one of his family.It was only after this use of violence to get his own way, that the government stepped in. The government accepted the offer despite warnings from many influential missionaries such as Octavius Hadfield and a previous Chief Justice, William Martin, that the purchase was would lead to trouble.
The stakes grew as Kingi refused to budge. Prominent settlers called for him to be surrounded, deported and, if he fired one shot, hanged. The Government pressed ahead and sent in surveyors, declaring that once the survey was complete, the land would be occupied by the military to prevent any Māori occupation. They were blocked by the Te Atiawa people, so the army was sent in. The first shots of the First Taranaki War were fired on 17 March 1860. The war lasted a year. Initially Maori forces were successful in driving settlers from the land. By the end of the year the army tactics had improved resulting in a serious defeat for Kingi. There followed an uneasy truce when the government agreed to re-examine the question and, three years later, Governor George Grey renounced the purchase about aweek before Taranaki tribes restarted the war in 1863 by ambushing British troops as they escorted a British defaulter along a beach near New Plymouth. Kingi went to the Waikato to join the Kingite attack on Auckland that started in late 1863. After a series of defeats in Auckland and at Kohero Ridge and Meremere, Kingi and other rebels retreated to Rangiriri Pa in Waikato which he helped to construct. However when the British gunboats appeared in the Waikato River at Rangiriri Pa, Kingi fled with all his men before the battle started.
After the war Kingi withdrew inland beyond the areas influenced by the Pākehā with the people of Ngati Maru at Manutangihia, in the upper reaches of the Waitara River. After 12 years he returned to New Plymouth to make his peace with the Pākehā government and later retired to Parihaka where he lived with the prophet Te Whiti o Rongomai for several years. His last years were spent at Kaingaru near Waitara where he died on 13 January 1882.
In 2004, the New Plymouth District Council resolved to sell 146 ha of land at Waitara to the Crown on condition that it was used in settlement of Te Atiawa claims under the Treaty of Waitangi. Leaseholders mounted unsuccessful legal opposition in 2008 and 2011.