Ngāti Toa, also called Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori iwi (tribe) based in the southern North Island and the northern South Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Toa remains a small iwi with a population of about 9,000. The iwi is centred around Porirua, Plimmerton, Kāpiti, Blenheim and Arapaoa Island. It has four marae: Takapūwāhia and Hongoeka in Porirua City, and Whakatū and Wairau in 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 lived in the Kāwhia region of the North Island until the 1820s, when forced out by conflict with other Tainui iwi, led by Pōtatau Te Wherowhero ( – 1860), who later became the first Māori King (). Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Koata, led by Te Rauparaha ( – 1849), escaped south and invaded Taranaki and the Wellington regions together with three north Taranaki iwi, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga. Together they fought and conquered the people of Wellington, Ngāti Ira, who practically ceased to exist as an independent iwi.
After the 1820s, the region conquered by Ngāti Toa extended from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson.
History
Origins of the iwi
The ancestors of the Ngāti Toa people came to New Zealand on the Tainui canoe. The tribe lived in the Kāwhia region, a western coastal part of the present-day Waikato Region, for many generations until the early 19th century.
Tū-pāhau, a descendant of Hoturoa, the captain of the Tainui, brought Ngāti Toa out of Kāwhia and into Taranaki in 1820. The Taranaki iwi Ngāti Mutunga presented Ngāti Toa with Pukewhakamaru Pā, as well as with the cultivations nearby. Pukewhakamaru lay inland of Ōkokī, up the Urenui River. Ngāti Toa stayed at Pukewhakamaru for 12 months. The Waikato–Maniapoto alliance followed Ngāti Toa to Taranaki and battles ensued there, most notably the battle of Motunui between Waikato–Maniapoto and the Ngāti Tama, Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Mutunga alliance. Te Rauparaha burnt down a whare that housed survey equipment. The Nelson magistrate ordered his arrest and deputised a number of citizens as police. Te Rauparaha resisted arrest and fighting broke out, resulting in the death of Te Rongo, the wife of Te Rangihaeata. Te Rangihaeata then killed the survey-party, who had surrendered, to avenge his wife's death in an act of utu. This became known as the Wairau Affray or until modern times, the Wairau massacre, as most of the Europeans were killed after the fighting had stopped.
Following fighting in the Hutt Valley in 1846, Governor George Grey arrested Te Rauparaha after British troops discovered he was receiving and sending secret instructions to the local Māori who were attacking settlers. In a surprise attack on his pa, Te Rauparaha, who was now quite elderly, was captured and taken prisoner of war. The government held him as a prisoner for 10 months and then kept him under house arrest in Auckland on board a prison ship, the Driver. After his capture fighting stopped in the Wellington region. Te Rauparaha was released to attend a Māori peace conference at Kohimaramara in Auckland and then given his liberty after giving up any claim to the Wairau valley. Te Rauparaha's last notable achievement came with the construction of Rangiātea Church (1846) in Ōtaki. He did not adopt Christianity, although he attended church services.
Te Rauparaha died on 27 November 1849. Many remember him as the author of the haka "Ka Mate", which he composed after being hidden in a pit after a defeat in battle.
Land settlements
In mid-October 2025, Ngāti Toa Rangatira reached a settlement with public radio broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) to purchase 53 hectares of land in Whitireia for NZ$5 million following an earlier acquisition in Titahi Bay. In 1848, the tribe had gifted about 202 hectares to the Anglican Church of New Zealand in exchange for the promise of a school being built on the land for the tribe's children. The school was never built and the land was vested in the Porirua College Trust Board during the early 20th century. In 1935, the New Zealand Broadcasting Service acquired 40 hectares for Radio 2YA, the predecessor to RNZ. Following years of litigation, RNZ agreed to sell the land back to Ngāti Toa Rangatira for NZ$5 million. As part of the settlement, the tribe would lease 12 hectares of the land back to RNZ for its AM broadcasting transmissions.
Tribal sayings
A saying delineates the tribe's historical boundaries in central New Zealand: