Mātaatua

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Mātaatua was one of the great Māori canoes that brought people from Hawaiki to New Zealand, around the 1200s–1300s. It was sent to fetch kumara seeds for Māori settlements. The core crew were the children of Irakewa: his sons Toroa, Tāneatua and Puhi, his daughter Muriwai, and their families. The Mātaatua is linked to many iwi, including Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Te Whakatōhea, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Pūkenga.

On the voyage, the crew stopped at Rarotonga and Rangitahua in the Kermadec Islands. After a storm, two sailors from another canoe, Aotea Kurahaupō, joined them. The Mātaatua eventually landed at Whangāra (Whakatāne East Cape) with other canoes, and some of the crew settled there, building a tuahu altar.

The canoe then moved to Whakatāne. At the mouth of the river Te Awa o te Atua, Toroa’s daughter Wairaka cried out that there were gods on the shore, and the river mouth came to be known as Te Awa o te Atua. They reached Kakahoroa (Whakatāne). The women unloaded provisions, and one woman managed to secure the canoe as the tide rose, giving the place its name Whakatāne.

They built a long pole tuahu called Makaka to mark the canoe’s prestige. A dispute over kumara rituals arose when Puhi insulted Toroa and Tāneatua. Puhi and many crew then left to travel further north with Mātaatua; this event is connected to Te Whakatōhea.

Those who stayed included Toroa at Kaputerangi and Tāneatua at Purikau near Ōhiwa; Muriwai’s line remained with Te Whakatōhea. The canoe’s figurehead (tauihu) stayed with Tāneatua. The descendants of Mātaatua include people from Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Te Whakatōhea, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Tauranga Moana, who still tell stories of the canoe’s reach. A proverb recalls Mātaatua’s wide lands: mai Tikirau ki nga kuri a Wharei.

Puhi went north with Mātaatua, and Ngāpuhi trace their origins to Takou, Matauri Bay. The final resting place of Mātaatua is Tākou Bay in the Bay of Islands. In 1986, many iwi held a reunion. A replica Mātaatua sits at the Mataatua Reserve in Whakatāne, and three meeting houses named Mātaatua stand in Ruatāhuna, Whakatāne and Rotorua.