Ngāti Toa, also called Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori iwi (tribe) based in the southern North Island and the northern South Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Toa remains a small iwi with a population of about 9,000. The iwi is centred around Porirua, Plimmerton, Kāpiti, Blenheim and Arapaoa Island. It has four marae: Takapūwāhia and Hongoeka in Porirua City, and Whakatū and Wairau in the South Island. Ngāti Toa's governing body has the name Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira.
The iwi traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. Ngāti Toa lived in the Kāwhia region of the North Island until the 1820s, when forced out by conflict with other Tainui iwi, led by Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (c. 1785 – 1860), who later became the first Māori King (r. 1858–1860). Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Koata, led by Te Rauparaha (c. 1765 – 1849), escaped south and invaded Taranaki and the Wellington regions together with three north Taranaki iwi, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga. Together they fought and conquered the people of Wellington, Ngāti Ira, who practically ceased to exist as an independent iwi.After the 1820s, the region conquered by Ngāti Toa extended from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson.
