They are the shoemakers, the blacksmiths and the carpenters.'ĭuring a visit to Taranaki about 1864 Tāwhiao left one of his most enduring sayings: 'You, Taranaki, have one handle of the kit, and I, Waikato, have the other. He believed that in time others would come to the assistance of his cause, hence his saying, 'My friends will come from the four ends of the world. A promise of salvation is encapsulated in the saying often heard on Waikato marae: 'This way of life will not continue beyond the days of my grandchildren when we shall reach salvation.' Through his reading of Scripture and discussion with early missionaries, Tāwhiao became aware that his was not a unique struggle. If deliverance was not to be found on earth, then perhaps assistance for Māori could be sought on another plane. The people were suffering from anxiety, deprivation, frustration and alienation. Many Māori communities have retained accounts of Tāwhiao's visits and sayings, in varying versions and with differing interpretations.

His travels, throughout the land of the Tainui people and beyond, brought him into contact with people desperately seeking hope and deliverance from settler encroachment. Tāwhiao assumed leadership of the King movement during this traumatic period. As a result of the invasion of Waikato by British forces in 1863 on the pretext that the Waikato tribes were preparing to attack Auckland, Tāwhiao and his people lost over a million acres to the settler government and subsequently to the settlers themselves. The wars of the 1860s in Taranaki and Waikato and the government's subsequent confiscation of Māori land saw Tāwhiao and his people rendered virtually landless and forced to retreat as wandering refugees into the heartland of Ngāti Maniapoto, now known as the King Country. Within the space of a generation, Māori had moved from a world in which they were totally in control to one in which control was rapidly moving into the hands of the settlers. The major issues that confronted Māori after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 were the desire of the growing settler population for more land, and increasing social disorganisation as a result of European contact. His reign was to last for 34 years, through the most turbulent era of Māori–Pākehā relations. On Pōtatau's death in 1860 Tāwhiao became the second Māori King. The King movement's supporters hoped that the position would help protect Māori land and foster unity between tribes. His father was a renowned warrior and leader, and in 1858 was installed as the first Māori King. In later years Tāwhiao's sayings were repeated as prophecies for the future. He was a Christian and a student of the Bible, as well as being well versed in the ancient rites of the Tainui priesthood. During his adolescent years, his father encouraged him to be a man of peace. He was raised by his maternal grandparents. In 1864 Te Ua Haumēne, the Hauhau prophet, bestowed on him the name Tāwhiao. Later he was baptised Matutaera (Methuselah) by the Anglican missionary Robert Burrows. It is said that he was named Tūkāroto to commemorate Pōtatau's stand at the siege of Mātakitaki pā in May 1822. He was born at Ōrongokoekoeā on the upper Mōkau River towards the end of the musket wars between Ngāpuhi and Waikato. Tāwhiao, of Ngāti Mahuta in the Tainui confederation of tribes, was the son of Waikato leader Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Whakaawi, Pōtatau's senior wife.

It was translated into te reo Māori by the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography team. Mahuta, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1993.

Day of defeat source montage