Kaiuku information

Kaiuku
Part of Musket Wars
NASA satellite image of Mahia Peninsula
Date 1828[1] Location Ōkūrārenga on Māhia Peninsula, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
Belligerents
Ngāti Tūwharetoa Te Arawa Ngāti Maru Waikato Ngāti Raukawa	Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāpuhi
Commanders and leaders
Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II Te Mokonuiarangi Tāraia Ngākuti Te Tumuhuia Paiaka Te Whatanui	Te Pareihe Te Wera Hauraki

Kaiuku (Māori for "eat mud") was a siege fought, probably in 1828, at Ōkūrārenga on Māhia Peninsula, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, as part of the Musket Wars. A coalition of Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, and Waikato invaded the Hawke's Bay region and besieged Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāpuhi at Ōkūrārenga. The defenders were reduced to eating mud, hence the name Kaiuku, but eventually the attackers broke the siege and departed.

The attacking army, numbered over a thousand men, possibly the largest single force assembled by the Māori up to that time. The name given to the coalition forces, Te Hokowhitu a Tū ("army of the war god") was subsequently popularised for other armies and eventually became the Māori name of the Māori Battalion.^[2]