LEWIS WILLIAMS, PHD

Entrance to the Whakatāne Harbour; landing place of the
Mataatua Waka under the command of Toroa. Source:
Williams, L. (2009).
Mataatua
The Mataatua did not land at Tauranga; accounts of its arrival and landfall vary 16 . However, the
salient points are as follows. It probably arrived on the shores of Aotearoa some time during the
14 th or 15 th centuries. Its arrival was part of a migration of waka over some 200 years from
Polynesia in response to pressures of increasing population there. During that time six other
fleet of waka, including the Takatimu, the Tainui and the Te Arawa, also made the voyage 17 .
The Mataatua made landfall first up in the North, probably at Whangaparaoa, then came down
to the Bay of Plenty coast, past Mauao, making its way to the mouth of the Whakatāne river
some 100 miles further along the coast. It was here that the important ceremony of implanting
the Mānuka tree into the ground; and therefore the mauri of the people was performed to mark
their arrival. The people of the Mataatua 18 settled in the Eastern Bay of Plenty among the people
of Te Tini o Toi who’d already inhabited the area for some time.
Signage on bank of Whakatāne river recounting the history
of the Mataatua’s arrival. Source: Williams, L. (2009).
16
In Stokes, E. (1980). A History of the Tauranga County. Dunmore Press, Palmerston North and Lyall, A.C. (1979).
Whakatohea of Opotiki. A.W. and A.H. Reed, Wellington.
17
The arrival dates of these waka as marked in various memorial stones at their landing places – such as the Arawa
at Maketū, and Mataatua at Whakatāne are commonly cited as the single arrival date of 1340. However this is
extremely unlikely and general consensus inclines towards the ‘great migration’ having occurred over some 200
years or so.
18
The final resting place of the Mataatua waka is the Takou river. According to Kihi Ngatai, Rangatira of Ngāi Te
Rangi, , soon after their arrival in the Whakatāne area, a dispute arose between Toroa, the captain of the Mataatua
10