Our History

Over 800 years ago, our tīpuna (ancestors) were long-distance seafarers. They rode the ocean currents and navigated by stars on voyaging waka (ocean going vessels) from Hawaiki Nui, making their way across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa to Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu. 

Waitaha, the first people of Te Waipounamu, journeyed on the Uruao waka and settled in Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha (the Canterbury Plains). Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu followed, and it was through warfare, intermarriage and political alliances,  that a common allegiance to Ngāi Tahu was forged. 

Whakapapa

Who We Are

“Whakapapa is our identity, our feet on the ground…”
Whakapapa is the ancestral link which binds all Ngāi Tahu whānau.
Ngāi Tahu means “people of Tahu” and all registered tribal members can trace their ancestry back to  the tribe’s founder Tahu Pōtiki.

Whakapapa speaks to more than our relationships with each other; it links us with the land, the sea, the environment, our world and our universe. It permeates all things Ngāi Tahu, helping us understand who we are and where we come from. It lies at the core of Ngāi Tahu knowledge and understanding – it provides an unbroken link and chain of descent between the spiritual and the material, the inanimate and the animate.