By Virginia Winder

Sleek as a seal, Kahe Te Rau-o-te-Rangi slips into the sea at the northern end of Kapiti Island and stretches out for the mainland.

On her back is a tiny raft, where baby Makere lies warm and dry, rocked to sleep by the rhythm of her mother's muscled arms.

As Kahe powers for shore, her mind is focused – she must get there to save the Te Rauparaha-led Ngati Toa people on Kapiti. They are soon to be attacked by a spearhead of warriors from enemy tribes and she is swimming for reinforcements.

With every stroke towards the mainland, she imagines war waka paddles pulling through the same sea towards Kapiti.

The tribal warriors from Nelson to Wanganui want revenge on Te Rauparaha, who led a heke, or migration, from Kawhia to coastal Wellington between 1821 and 1822.

As Ngati Toa and Te Atiawa people journeyed through the lands of other iwi, Te Rauparaha and his followers were determined to show their dominance. They did, and now they are set to pay for it.

There is no more potent incentive than survival, so Kahe reaches out for mainland Aotearoa (New Zealand), baby Makere still safe on her back.

The athletic mother never pauses, for she comes from fighting stock. She is the daughter of Te Matoha, one of Te Rauparaha's leading warriors.

Women lead the way

This story is being shared by one of Kahe's ancestors – another woman warrior.

Miria Pomare sits in a cottage gazing at a similar sea, which today is a simmering swirl of teal. But it is Mana Island that sits like a deflated chocolate cake on the horizon, not the shapelier Kapiti that lies northwards along the coast.

The 32-year-old has her face to the waves as she talks of Kahe's courageous feat. "They oiled her down with kokowai (red ocre oil) to keep the cold out and they constructed a little raft out of raupo to keep the baby buoyant and out of the water."

Unbeknown to Kahe, the reinforcements weren't needed for that 1824 island encounter – the Kapiti-based warriors proved too strong for the attackers.

"It was a decisive victory," Miria says. "They were celebrating and fed on the roasted morsels of their remains."

The battle at Waiorua was remembered as Te Umupakaroa. "Which refers to the ovens and the crisping of flesh," she says.

Through passages of time

Meanwhile, Kahe and her baby girl made it safely to the mainland. "Te Rau (Kahe) went down in history for her epic swim and that channel was named after her.

"That swim was not repeated again for another 125 years," Miria says. "It was carried out by trained surf swimmers, without a baby on their back, and accompanied by boats."

Kahe was also one of the few women who signed the Treaty of Waitangi.

And she was the grandmother of one of New Zealand's great men – Sir Maui Pomare.

After the death of her Maori husband, Kahe married Scottish whaler and trader John Nicoll.

Their daughter Mere Hautonga Nicoll (known as Mary Nichols) married Wiremu Naera Pomare.

On 13 January, 1876, at Pahau Pa, Onaero, Maui Wiremu Piti Naera Pomare was born.

Miria Pomare is Sir Maui's great-granddaughter.