Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. It has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi, behind Ngāpuhi, with an estimated 102,480 people according to the 2023 census. The traditional rohe or tribal area of Ngāti Porou extends from Pōtikirua and Lottin Point in the north to Te Toka-a-Taiau (a rock that used to sit in the mouth of Gisborne harbour) in the south. The Ngāti Porou iwi comprises 58 hapū (sub-tribes) and 48 mārae (meeting grounds).

Mount Hikurangi features prominently in Ngāti Porou traditions as a symbol of endurance and strength, and holds tapu status. In these traditions, Hikurangi is often personified. Ngāti Porou traditions indicate that Hikurangi was the first point to surface when Māui fished up the North Island from beneath the ocean. His canoe, the Nuku-tai-memeha, is said to have been wrecked there. The Waiapu River also features in Ngāti Porou traditions.

History

thumb|Ngāti Porou paepae pātaka (threshold of a storehouse) in the [[Waiapu Valley]]

thumb|[[Wharenui (meeting house) in Waiomatatini, 1896, named Porourangi after the ancestor Ngāti Porou derive their name from.]]

Pre-European history

Ngāti Porou takes its name from the ancestor Porourangi, also known as Porou Ariki. He was a direct descendant of Toi-kai-rākau, Māui (accredited in oral tradition with raising the North Island from the sea), and Paikea the whale rider. That same year a second attack by Hongi Hika of Ngāpuhi and Te Haupa of Ngāti Maru targeted the iwi’s pā at Wharekahika Bay, but Te Haupa was slain and the raid was repelled at the cost of heavy casualties. Heavy defeats came at the hands of a raiding party led by the Ngāpuhi rangatira Pōmare I and Te Wera Hauraki, who through force and guile sacked the pā of Okauwharetoa and Te Whetumatarau near Te Araroa. Te Wera Hauraki’s forces would then move on to sack additional pā in the area of Waiapu River and Whareponga Bay. A final defeat at the hands of Ngāpuhi took place in 1823, when a preemptive attack by a large army of Ngāti Porou warriors on Pōmare’s trespassing forces in Te Araroa was cut down in open field by musket fire. The rangatira Taotaoriri was then able to negotiate a favourable peace between the two iwi, a deal sealed by his marriage to the Ngāti Porou noblewoman Hikupoto and the return of Rangi-i-paea, who had been abducted and married to Pōmare in a previous raid. This peace was to have important religious consequences, as a number of Ngāti Porou rangatira freed by Ngāpuhi in later negotiations would go on to spread the Christianity they had adopted from European missionaries during the course of their captivity.

A second wave of violence rocked Ngāti Porou starting in 1829, when the presence of Ngāti Porou passengers on the ship where the Ngāti Awa rangatira Ngarara was assassinated by Ngāpuhi marked the iwi as a target for retribution. Minor raids by Ngāti Awa and their allies Whakatōhea and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui in 1829 and 1831 resulted in the deaths of some Ngāti Porou, which triggered retaliatory action from the iwi. A second 1832 raid, this time against Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, did not meet with the same success, as the defenders of Wharekura pā rebuffed the attackers and slew two Ngāti Porou rangatira. Two years later, a retaliatory raid by Te Whānau-ā-Apanui was in turn rebuffed by forces under the rangatira Kakatarau, whose father Pakura was killed at Wharekura. The extraordinary battlefield feats of the Christian Ngāti Porou rangatira Piripi Taumata-a-Kura lent him enormous prestige, which he soon leveraged to convert other Ngāti Porou rangatira and lead Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Ngāti Porou to a peace accord in 1837.

The waning of the Musket Wars and the unifying influence of Christianity ushered in a period of relative calm and cultural development. Ngāti Porou chiefs were also signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Ngāti Porou experienced substantial economic growth during the 1850s. The common law trust is overseen by a board, with two representatives from each of the seven ancestral zones. As of 2022, the Rūnanga is based in Gisborne, and is chaired by Selwyn Parata, with George Reedy as the chief executive.

The trust administers Treaty of Waitangi settlements under the Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Act, represents the iwi under the Māori Fisheries Act, and is the official iwi authority for resource consent consultation under the Resource Management Act. Its rohe is contained within the territory of Gisborne District Council, which is both a regional and district council.

Notable people

There are many notable people who are affiliated to Ngāti Porou. This is a list of some of them.

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File:Aley_Aiono-5012.jpg|Alex Aiono in 2017

File:Maori_women_at_BBQ.jpg|Keisha Castle-Hughes in 2019

File:Georgina Beyer 2018 (cropped).jpg|Georgina Beyer 2018

File:George Nēpia 1935.jpg|George Nēpia 1935

File:Iritana Tawhiwhirangi DNZM (cropped).jpg|Iritana Tawhiwhirangi DNZM

</gallery>

References

  • Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou website