Every year hundreds of people make the annual hikoi to Waitangi to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, and the man who translated the Treaty has a bit to do with the naming of the town of Paihia.
This story begins seventeen years before the treaty was signed, when Henry Williams was scouting for a place to set up a mission house.
According to Ngati Kawa Taituha, Chair of Te Tii Marae in Waitangi, the name likely stems from a conversation between Williams and the scouting party from the tribes from Ngāti Kawa or Ngāti Rahiri, who were helping him find a good site.
We talk to Taituha and some Williams’ descendants about the history of the sunny Northland settlement. And we also learn from Taituha about another, original name that pre-dates Paihia.
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