Wiremu Parata

The Honourable Wiremu Te Kākākura Parata
Wiremu Parata circa 1876
Minister without portfolio
In office Dec 1872 – Feb 1876
Prime Minister	George Waterhouse Sir William Fox Sir Julius Vogel Daniel Pollen
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Western Maori
In office 1871–1875
Preceded by	Mete Paetahi
Succeeded by	Hoani Nahe
Personal details
Born	c. 1830s Kapiti Island
Died	29 September 1906 Waikanae
Resting place	Waikanae
Political party	None
Relations	Huria Matenga (sister-in-law) Te Pēhi Kupe (great-uncle)
Father	George Stubbs
Mother	Metapere Waipunahau

Wiremu Te Kākākura Parata, also known as Wi Parata (c. 1830s – 29 September 1906) was a New Zealand politician of Māori and Pākehā descent. During the 1870s he was a member of the House of Representatives and a Minister of the Crown.

Parata was the son of Metapere Waipunahau, a Māori woman of high status, and George Stubbs, a whaler and trader from Australia. His grandfather Te Rangi Hīroa and his great-uncle Te Pēhi Kupe were leading rangatira amongst the Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa iwi who had settled along the Kapiti Coast.

After Stubbs drowned in a boating accident off Kapiti Island in 1838, Parata and his brother were taken by their mother to the pā at Kenakena, where he grew up.

In 1852, he married his second wife, Unaiki; nothing is known of his first marriage. Parata and Unaiki are thought to have had eleven children.

In the late 1860s, Parata became a farmer, and owned about 1,600 sheep by the mid-1870s. He was, by then, relatively wealthy, and owned the largest farm in the area of Waikanae, a town which was initially named after him ("Parata Township"). He hosted the Waikanae Hack Racing Club on his land, a practice subsequently maintained by his son and grandson until 1914.

Parata entered politics in the 1860s. In 1871, he was elected to the House of Representatives as the member for the Western Maori constituency, defeating the incumbent Mete Paetahi. He remained the sitting MP for the duration of the 5th New Zealand Parliament.