Ngāi Tahu are a resilient, entrepreneurial people who made Te Waipounamu their home over 800 years ago. Ngāi Tahu tīpuna were long-distance seafarers, riding the ocean currents and navigating by stars on voyaging waka from Hawaiki Nui.

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.

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 this man, the tribe’s founder Tahu Pōtiki.

A Ngāi Tahu individual stands within their whānau. That whānau lives within a hapū. Collectively, in its simplest form, the various hapū come together and unite as an iwi. In the case of Ngāi Tahu, 18 Papatipu Rūnanga are spread throughout Te Waipounamu. They exist to uphold the mana of their people over the land, the sea and the natural ...

The design of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu embraces our cultural traditions. It incorporates the best corporate governance models we could find in the world and draws from the democratic structures of local government and Western best practice.

5 days ago · As the settler population grew rapidly, Te Tiriti was intended to provide essential protections for Ngāi Tahu in our dealings with Pākehā, particularly over land. Yet, by the late 19th century, Ngāi Tahu had become essentially landless, severely impoverished, and all but forgotten in Te Waipounamu.

The online, digital Ngāi Tahu Atlas includes over 1,000 traditional Māori place names that have been fully referenced from whānau manuscripts, published books, 19th century maps, newspaper articles, and a vast array of unpublished material.

Ngāi Tahu before the Treaty. From the Ngāi Tahu Land Report. The descendants of Tahupotiki. Ngāi Tahu take their name from Tahupotiki, a descendant of Paikea and a close relation of Porourangi, the ancestor from whom Ngati Porou has descended.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Te Whare o Te Waipounamu, 15 Show Place, Addington, Christchurch 8024

Feb 3, 2025 · Preparations are under way at Ōnuku Marae which will host this year’s Hui Whakaū I Te Tiriti Ngāi Tahu Waitangi Day commemoration on Thursday, 6 February 2025.