Ngati Toa

Ngāti Toa
Iwi of New Zealand
Rohe (region)	Lower North Island

Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori iwi (tribe) in the lower North Island and upper South Island of New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends from Whanganui in the north, Palmerston North in the east, and Kaikoura and Hokitika in the south. Ngāti Toa remains a small iwi with a population of only about 4500 (NZ Census 2001). It has four marae: Takapūwāhia and Hongoeka in Porirua, and Whakatū and Wairau in the north of the South Island. Ngāti Toa's governing body has the name Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira.

The iwi traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. Ngāti Toa originally lived on the coastal west Waikato region until forced out by conflict with other Tainui iwi headed by Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (later the first Māori King). Ngāti Toa, led by Te Rauparaha, escaped south and invaded Taranaki and the Wellington regions together with two North Taranaki iwi, Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga. Together they fought with and conquered the turangawaewae of Wellington, the Ngati Ira, wiping out their existence as an independent iwi. After the 1820s the Ngāti Toa conquered region extended from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson.

A saying delineates the tribe's traditional boundaries:

Mai i Miria-te-kakara ki Whitireia,
Whakawhiti te moana Raukawa ki Wairau, ki Whakatū,
Te Waka Tainui.

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