Muriwhenua signed the Waikato-Manukau sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi in late March or early April 1840 at Waikato Heads. He was married to Ngākahuwhero of Te Rarawa and was the father of Treaty signatory Ngāniho Te Tai, and the great-grandfather of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia.
Following the invasion of Waikato by Ngāpuhi leader Hongi Hika in 1822, Waikato successfully invaded Taranaki, with Muriwhenua leading a party which travelled along the coast. A whakataukī (saying) at the time referred to the ‘multitudes of Kāwhia and the thousands of Waikato.’ [1]
In 1846 the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rangihaeata and his allies wrote to Waikato rangatira, including Muriwhenua, asking them to take revenge for the capture of Ngāti Toa leader Te Rauparaha. The Waikato rangatira replied that they would ‘not support Te Rauparaha’s cause’. [2]
In the same year Muriwhenua is reported to have been one of the rangatira who bought a water mill for the 100-acre (40-hectare) wheat fields in Aotea and set it up under the direction of millwright Stewart McMullan. In 1846 Muriwhenua was also painted by George French Angas with Kahawai of Ngāti Hinetū, wearing a striped kahu kurī (dogskin cloak).
[1] Quoted in Evening Post, 7 May 1866, p. 2
[2] Letter between chiefs (with translation), 28 December 1846, MS-Papers-0032-0670B-11, Alexander Turnbull Library