Waka (canoe) in the context of "Dacrycarpus dacrydioides"

Iwi (Māori pronunciation: [ˈiwi]) are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, iwi roughly means 'people' or 'nation', and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English.

Iwi groups trace their ancestry to the original Polynesian migrants who, according to tradition, arrived from Hawaiki. Some iwi cluster into larger groupings that are based on whakapapa (genealogical tradition) and known as waka (literally 'canoes', with reference to the original migration voyages). These super-groupings are generally symbolic rather than logistical. In pre-European times, most Māori were allied to relatively small groups in the form of hapū ('sub-tribes') and whānau ('family'). Each iwi contains a number of hapū; among the hapū of the Ngāti Whātua iwi, for example, are Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei. Māori use the word rohe for the territory or boundaries of iwi.

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.

Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The 5.5 km (3.4 mi) wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone capped by central scoria cones, reaching a height of 260 m (850 ft). Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field, having erupted in two phases about 1450 CE and 1500 CE and covering an area of 2,311 ha (5,710 acres). It is separated from the mainland of Auckland's North Shore by the Rangitoto Channel. Since World War II, it has been linked by a causeway to the much older, non-volcanic Motutapu Island.

Rangitoto is Māori for 'Bloody Sky', with the name coming from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua ("The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua"). Tama-te-kapua was the captain of the Arawa waka (canoe) and was badly wounded on the island, after having lost a battle with the Tainui iwi (tribe) at Islington Bay.

Māori oral histories recount how their ancestors set out from their homeland in waka hourua, large twin-hulled ocean-going canoes (waka). Some of these traditions name a homeland called Hawaiki.

Among these is the story of Kupe, who had eloped with Kūrāmarotini, the wife of Hoturapa, the owner of the great canoe Matahourua, whom Kupe had murdered. To escape punishment for the murder, Kupe and Kura fled in Matahourua and discovered a land he called Aotearoa ('land of the long-white-cloud'). He explored its coast and killed the sea monster Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, finally returning to his home to spread the news of his newly discovered land.

The Marlborough Sounds (te reo Māori: Te Tauihu-o-te-Waka) are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels. According to Māori mythology, the sounds are the prows of the many sunken waka of Aoraki.

Kurahaupō was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand in Māori tradition.

In Taranaki tribal tradition, Kurahaupō is known as Te Waka Pakaru ki te moana or 'The Canoe broken at sea', and was reputed to have arrived to New Zealand in the same generation as the other great migration vessels of the Māori (although unlikely to have arrived at the same time) like Aotea, Mātaatua, Tākitimu, Tainui, Arawa etc. This proverb, or whakataukī describes how the waka suffered multiple accidents and why the tribal traditions of other descendant groups all differ. There are multiple accounts of the voyage of the waka, and the people who sailed in it, that differ widely depending on which area the tradition originates from. While all are correct, this divergent discourse has contributed to various theories printed on this waka by Percy Smith and company, and subsequently republished and referenced through generations of scholars. This includes the theory that there were two vessels named Kurahaupō. In fact, there was probably only one vessel, but it carried different names and changed captains several times.

Tainui is a tribal waka confederation of New Zealand Māori iwi. The Tainui confederation comprises four principal related Māori iwi of the central North Island of New Zealand: Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa and Waikato.There are other Tainui iwi whose tribal areas lay outside the traditional Tainui boundaries – Ngāi Tai in the Auckland area, Ngāti Raukawa ki Te Tonga and Ngāti Toa in the Horowhenua, Kāpiti region, and Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Koata in the northern South Island.

Ngāti Maniapoto is an iwi (tribe) based in the Waikato-Waitomo region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the Tainui confederation, the members of which trace their whakapapa (genealogy) back to people who arrived in New Zealand on the waka (canoe) Tainui. The 2018 New Zealand census reports show an estimated population of 45,930 people who affiliated with Maniapoto, making it the 9th most-populous iwi in New Zealand.