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Ngāti Tama
Ngāti Tama
Iwi (tribe) in Māoridom
Rohe (region)	King Country, Taranaki, Wellington, South Island, Chatham Islands
Waka (canoe)	Tokomaru
Population	1,764

The Ngāti Tama is a historic Māori tribe of present-day New Zealand. Their origins, according to Māori oral tradition, date back to Tama Ariki, the chief navigator on the Tokomaru waka. They are located in north Taranaki, around Poutama. River Mōhakatino marks their northern boundary with the Tainui and the Ngāti Maniapoto.^{[citation needed]} The close geographical proximity of Tainui's Ngāti Toa of Kawhia and the Ngati Mutunga explains the long, continuous, and close relationship among these three tribes.^[1]

History and territory

The Ngati Tama migrated south in the 1820s in search of better opportunities (e.g. trade) and to ensure their safety, as there was a conflict with musket-carrying Tainui people. The Ngati Tama paramount chief Te Pūoho-o-te-rangi led the expedition south, along with his brother Te Kaeaea and other chiefs.^[2]^[3]

While the Ngati Tama were one of the first Taranaki tribes to arrive in Wellington in the 1820s, other tribes and clans joined the migration from Taranaki, such as the Ngati Mutunga and the Te Atiawa. These three tribes share the same heritage, which goes back to the "Tokomaru canoe". Some central and southern Taranaki tribes, including the Wanganui, also took part in the journey southwards.

Evidence suggests the Ngati Tama and the Te Atiawa arrived in Whanganui-a-Tara in a series of migrations from Taranaki, led by Ngāti Toa) in 1822, participating in a process of invasion and conquest and occupation of the surroundings of Wellington by 1824. They encountered tribes who were already settled in Te Whanganui-a-Tara such as the Ngai Tara, the Ngati Ira, and the Ngati Kahungunu.

While the Ngāti Toa and the Taranaki tribes shared common rights about the land around Wellington, the Ngati Tama kept a separate and distinct identity in various areas in Wellington. Ngati Tama settlements on the harbor included Kaiwharawhara, Pakuao and Raurimu from the first arrival in 1824, Tiakiwai (Thorndon) after the departure of Ngati Mutunga (in 1835).

The Ngati Tama established settlements at Ohariu, Mākara, Ohaua, and Oterongo on the western coast; and Komangarautawhiri further north. They also had summer fishing kainga at Okiwi and Mukamuka (Palliser Bay).

The Ngati Tama basically owned all rights in Te Whanganui-a-Tara and its resources, especially from the west to the coast. The Ngati Tama were joined tangata whenua, and had tino rangatiratanga, mana whenua and tangata whenua status over those lands, in accordance with traditional Maori law and customs. They exerted their status with their mana, rangatiratanga, by creating relations between groups, or by physical use, cultivation and occupation.

The Ngati Tama tribe has maintained a distinct identity of its own in Wellington. They enjoy fishing and birding; own land rights and have an organizational structure associated with kainga, marae, and waahi tapu, among others.

Moriori genocide

Despite the pressure of competing interests among the tribes of Wellington, at first a thriving economy was developed. This economy was largely based in trading with visiting ships. In November 1835, after discussing a possible invasion of Samoa and the Norfolk Islands, many Ngati Tama took part in the sea invasion of the closer Chatham Islands. Together with the Ngati Mutunga, they captured the mate of The Lord Rodney and threatened to kill him unless he took them to the Chatham Islands. There they massacred about 300 Moriori, raped the women, enslaved the survivors, and destroyed their economy and traditional way of living.^[4] Some returned home to Taranaki.^[5]

In 1835, 24 generations after the Moriori chief Nunuku had forbidden war, the Moriori welcomed about 900 people from two Māori tribes, the Ngāti Mutunga and the Ngāti Tama. Originally from Taranaki (on New Zealand’s Northern Island), they had voyaged from Wellington on an overcrowded European vessel, the Rodney. They arrived severely weakened, but were nursed back to health by their Moriori hosts. However, they soon revealed their hostile intentions and embarked on a reign of terror.

Stunned, the Moriori called a council of 1,000 men at Te Awapātiki to debate what to do. The younger men were keen to repel the invaders and argued that although they had not fought for many centuries, they outnumbered the newcomers two to one and were a strong people. But the elders argued that Nunuku’s Law was a sacred covenant with their gods and could not be broken. The consequences for the Moriori were devastating.

Although the total number of Moriori first slaughtered was said to be around 300, hundreds more were enslaved by the invading tribes and later died. Some were killed by their captors. Others, horrified by the desecration of their beliefs, died of despair. According to records made by elders, 1,561 Moriori died between 1835 and 1863, when they were released from slavery. Many succumbed to diseases introduced by Europeans, but large numbers also died at the hands of the Ngāti Mutunga and the Ngāti Tama. In 1862 only 101 remained. When the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933, many thought this marked the extinction of a race.^[6]

European colonization and displacement

In the late 1830s, the New Zealand Company brought boatloads of European colonizers who searched for a place to settle in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbor). The effects of European settlement on the Ngati Tama proved to be disastrous as the new arrivals sought Maori land.

The Port Nicholson Deed was a land sale transaction between the New Zealand Company and the chiefs in the Hutt Valley, with the Ngati Tama Chief Te Kaeaea taking part in it. The New Zealand Company thought they had purchased land from Te Kaeaea when they had only been given anchorage and port rights at Wellington Harbor.

The Crown set up a Spanish Commission to inquire into the sale of land in Wellington. Spain adopted an attitude towards the Ngati Tama's claims prejudicial for their interests because of the occupation of the land in the Hutt by the Ngati Tama. While Spain recognized the numerous faults in the land sales, the Commission's findings incorrectly assumed that Te Kaeaea's participation in the transaction of Port Nicholson was equal to the complete support for the sale of Ngati Tama land. Despite protests from the Ngati Tama, the Crown assisted the settlers and gave them indigenous land. The Crown's actions had a fatal impact in Whanganui-a-Tara, the Ngati Tama losing the land they had conquered in 1822.

In 1844 Governor Fitzroy adopted a policy of compensating the Ngati Tama. However, there was no consultation and the compensation proceeded only in a summary fashion. The Ngati Tama living in Kaiwharawhara received their share of the compensation under protest while those living in Ohariu missed any compensation whatsoever.

In 1847, McCleverty concluded a series of agreements with Ngati Tama to finally settle the reserves issue. In total, the 200 Ngati Tama received 2600 acres of reserves, of which about 13 acres per person were set aside as compensation. The ceded reserves were inadequate for their needs and unsuitable for growing crops, essential for the Ngati Tama's survival.^[7]

By 1842, the Ngati Tama people were forcibly removed from their lands by Crown-assisted settler occupation. They sought refuge by squatting on land in the Hutt Valley, where the soil was more productive than in the reserves they had been awarded. The occupation was short-lived and ended in February 1846, when Governor Grey evicted them under threat of military intervention.

The Ngati Tama's cultivated areas, their sole means of survival, were plundered. Their chief Te Kaeaea exiled in Auckland.

The remaining Ngati Tama had to seek sanctuary with other indigenous tribes and clans. They suffered from high levels of disease and mortality, having no choice but to sell reserve land out of necessity. When the Crown finished its land acquisition program, the Ngati Tama had virtually no land left. By the 1870s, they had largely moved from the harbor rim and been evicted.

The impact on the Ngati Tama was significant. They had been scattered by the invasion of the Waikato tribes during the musket wars of the 1820s. Many then left Wellington, which they had invaded and conquered, to take part in the seaborne invasion of the Chatham Islands. Some individuals survived, many in whanau groupings, living with other Maori groups. The Ngati Tama's presence in Wellington as a tribe was lost.^[8]

Given the absence of an organized entity representing the Ngati Tama in Wellington, other tribes such as the Ngāti Toa and the Te Atiawa took responsibility for looking after the Ngati Tama's interests. In particular, the Wellington Tenths Trust has directly represented the interests of its beneficiaries; namely those individuals and their descendants who were named as owners of Ngati Tama reserves in the Wellington region back in the 19th century.^[9]

Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Act 2003

In 2003, the tribe's historical Treaty of Waitangi claims were resolved with the passing of the Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Act 2003.^[10] The Act includes a historical narrative of the Crown's interactions with the tribe and an apology:

The Crown profoundly regrets and unreservedly apologises to Ngati Tama for its actions, which have resulted in the virtual landlessness of Ngati Tama in Taranaki, and which have caused suffering and hardship to Ngati Tama over the generations to the present day.[...]

The settlement also includes specific financial benefits.^[10]