The region’s tangata whenua (people of the land) trace their descent from three waka (canoes).
The Maori people are the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and first arrived here in waka hourua (voyaging canoes) from their ancestral homeland of Hawaiki about 800 years ago.
Maori originally voyaged from Eastern Polynesia to the region, and other parts of New Zealand, in the late 13th or early 14th centuries. They named what the region Te Moana a Toi (the sea of Toi). Toi, or Toitetuatahi, was an ancestral explorer, to whom Maori throughout the North Island are linked.
Three waka landed in the Bay of Plenty, the Te Arawa, Takitimu and Mataatua. The western area of the region was settled by the iwi (people) of Ngati Ranginui, Ngaiterangi and Ngati Pukenga from the waka Takitumu and Mataatua. Te Arawa descendents from the waka Te Arawa inhabited much of the eastern area of the region and south to Rotorua.
Over several generations, relations between Ngaiterangi and Ngati Ranginui were cemented by marriage and these close links have been maintained.
Today, Maori make up 15 per cent of the country’s population, and their language and culture has a major impact on all facets of New Zealand life.