Editing Hastings, New Zealand (section)

===Māori history===
Near the fourteenth century [[Common Era|CE]], [[Māori people|Māori]] arrived in Heretaunga or Hawke's Bay, settling in the river valleys and along the coast where food was plentiful. It is believed that Māori arrived at Heretaunga by canoe, travelling down the coast from the north, landing at [[Wairoa]], Portland Island, the Ahuriri Lagoon at [[Westshore, New Zealand|Westshore]], and at [[Waimārama]]. Their culture flourished, causing gradual deforestation of the land.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wilmshurst|first=Janet|date=1995|title=A 2000 year history of vegetation and landscape change in Hawke's Bay, North Island , New Zealand|url=https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/4790/wilmshurst_thesis.pdf|access-date=19 January 2022|website=Canterbury University}}</ref> The forest was replaced by [[bracken]], making this one of the few regions of New Zealand where sheep could be brought in by later European settlers without felling the bush first. In the sixteenth century, Taraia, great-grandson of the great and prolific chief Kahungunu, established the large tribe of [[Ngāti Kahungunu]], which eventually colonised the eastern side of the North Island from Poverty Bay to Wairarapa. They were one of the first Māori tribes to come in contact with European settlers.