Ngāti Toa in the context of "South Island"

Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori iwi (tribe) of the South Island. Its takiwā (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Māhanga and Kahurangi Point in the north to Stewart Island / Rakiura in the south. The takiwā comprises 18 rūnanga (governance areas) corresponding to traditional settlements. According to the 2023 census an estimated 84,000 people affiliated with the Kāi Tahu iwi.

Ngāi Tahu originated in the Gisborne District of the North Island, along with Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu, who all intermarried amongst the local Ngāti Ira. Over time, all but Ngāti Porou would migrate away from the district. Several iwi were already occupying the South Island prior to Ngāi Tahu's arrival, with Kāti Māmoe only having arrived about a century earlier from the Hastings District, and already having conquered Waitaha, who themselves were a collection of ancient groups. Other iwi that Ngāi Tahu encountered while migrating through the South Island were Ngāi Tara, Rangitāne, Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri, and Ngāti Wairangi – all of which also migrated from the North Island at varying times. During the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of Europeans – mostly British – migrated to New Zealand. After European arrival, Ngāti Toa (allied with Ngāti Tama) and Ngāti Rārua invaded Ngāi Tahu's territory with muskets. Some European settlers intermingled with native iwi populations, and today, most families who descend from Ngāi Tahu also have Ngāti Māmoe and British ancestry.

Kaiapoi Pā is a historic pā (fort) site just north of the Waimakariri River in Canterbury, New Zealand. The pā was a major centre of trade and nobility for Ngāi Tahu in the Classical Māori period.

Established around 1700, the pā was sacked in 1832 by Ngāti Toa warriors led by Te Rauparaha. Today the pā site is a memorial reserve and is significant to local iwi. The nearby town of Kaiapoi is named after the pā.

Te Tau Ihu Māori are a group of Māori iwi in the upper South Island of New Zealand. It includes Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō (from the Kurahaupō canoe), Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Toa (from the Tainui canoe), andNgāti Tama and Te Atiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui (from the Tokomaru canoe of Taranaki).

Ngāti Tama is a Māori tribe of New Zealand. Their origins, according to oral tradition, date back to Tama Ariki, the chief navigator on the Tokomaru waka. Their historic region is in north Taranaki, around Poutama, with the Mōhakatino River marking their northern boundary with the Tainui and Ngāti Maniapoto. The close geographical proximity of Tainui's Ngāti Toa of Kawhia and the Ngāti Mutunga explains the long, continuous, and close relationship among these three tribes.

Te Rauparaha (c. 1760s – 27 November 1849) was a Māori rangatira, warlord, and chief of the Ngāti Toa iwi. One of the most powerful military leaders of the Musket Wars, Te Rauparaha fought a war of conquest that greatly expanded Ngāti Toa southwards, receiving the epithet "the Napoleon of the South". He remains one of the most prominent and celebrated New Zealand historical figures.

Born probably in the 1760s, Te Rauparaha's conquests eventually extended Ngāti Toa authority from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson. He participated in land sale and negotiations with the New Zealand Company at the beginning of the colonisation of New Zealand. An early signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi, Te Rauparaha was later central to the Wairau Affray in the Marlborough district, considered by many to be the first of the conflicts in the New Zealand Wars. Shortly before he died he led the building of Rangiātea Church in Ōtaki.

The Wairau Affray of 17 June 1843, also called the Wairau Massacre and the Wairau Incident, was the first serious clash of arms between British settlers and Māori in New Zealand after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and the only one to take place in the South Island. The incident was sparked when a magistrate and a representative of the New Zealand Company, who held a deed to land in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough in the north of the South Island, led a group of European settlers to attempt to arrest Ngāti Toa chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata. Fighting broke out and 22 British settlers were killed, nine after their surrender. Four Māori were killed, including Te Rongo, who was Te Rangihaeata's wife.

The incident heightened fears among settlers of an armed Māori insurrection. It created the first major challenge for Governor Robert FitzRoy, who took up his posting in New Zealand six months later. FitzRoy investigated the incident and exonerated Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, for which he was strongly criticised by settlers and the New Zealand Company. In 1944 a land claims commission investigation determined that the Wairau Valley had not been legally sold. The government was to pay compensation to the Rangitāne iwi, determined to be the original owners (until the early 1830s, when Te Rauparaha had driven them from the area).

Ngāti Rārua are a Māori tribe (iwi) of the Tainui tribal confederation.

Ngāti Rārua stem from the marriage of Rārua-ioio and Tū-pāhau and, like other Tainui tribes, had their original home in the Waikato, specifically on the west coast of the King Country region, at Kāwhia, Marokopa and Waikawau. In 1821 Ngāti Rārua moved southwards in a series of migrations (heke) led by Te Rauparaha of Ngāti Toa which saw the iwi relocate to Nelson and Marlborough in the upper South Island.