Hirawanu Tapu

{{Short description|Moriori leader}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2024}}

Hirawanu Tapu ({{circa}} 1824–1900) was a notable New Zealand Moriori leader. He was born in Te Awapatiki, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.{{DNZB|King|Michael|1t12|Hirawanu Tapu|23 April 2017||Michael King (historian)}} He was a major source for Alexander Shand's works on Moriori history, traditions, chants and vocabulary, and about 90 percent of all extant knowledge of his people's culture and language passed through his hands.{{cite journal |last=Shand |first=Alexander |date=December 1894 |title=The Moriori people of the Chatham Islands: their traditions and history |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_3_1894/Volume_3,_No.4,_December_1894/The_Moriori_people_of_the_Chatham_Islands%3A_their_traditions_and_history%3A_Chapter_3,_Manaii_%28or_Manaia%29,_Kahukaka_and_Porotehiti_%28translation%29,_by_Alexander_Shand,_p187-198 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140123013355/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_3_1894/Volume_3,_No.4,_December_1894/The_Moriori_people_of_the_Chatham_Islands:_their_traditions_and_history:_Chapter_3,_Manaii_(or_Manaia),_Kahukaka_and_Porotehiti_(translation),_by_Alexander_Shand,_p187-198 |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 January 2014 |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=187–198 |access-date=18 January 2014 }}