Wi Tako Ngatata

Te Āti Awa, Taranaki

Wi Ngatata was a chief of Te Ati-awa. He was one of the migrants of the tribes of Tara-naki who migrated to the head of the fish (southern end of North Island) at Wai-kanae and onwards to Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour district). This migration was called The Niho-puta Migration. Chief Wi Tako was a member of the Legislative Council for many years.

Biographical sources

  • "He Tau/A Chant." Nga Moteatea: He Maramara Rere No Nga Waka Maha. The Songs: Scattered Pieces From Many Canoe Areas. Comp. A. T. Ngata. Trans. Pei Te Hurinui. Pt. 3. Wellington, N.Z.: Polynesian Soc., 1970. 427.
  • Ngatata, Wi Tako. "Wi Tako Ngatata Writing In Reply To A Statement Published NY Edward Jerningham Wakefield At Wellington, N.Z., September 1844." Early History of New Zealand: From Earliest Times to 1840. By J. H. Wallace. Ed. Thomson W. Leys. Auckland, N.Z.: H. Brett, 1890. 690.

    Other

  • "Wi Tako Ngatata writing in reply to a statement published by Edward Jerningham Wakefield at Wellington, N.Z., September 1844." Early History of New Zealand: From Earliest Times to 1840. By J. H. Wallace. Ed. Thomson W. Leys. Auckland, N.Z.: H. Brett, 1890. 690. Rpt in Māori Is My Name: Historical Writings in Translation. Ed. John Caselberg. Dunedin, N.Z.: John McIndoe, 1975. 57-58.
  • Wi Tako takes issue with various assertions made by E. J. Wakefield in his letter to the Wellington Spectator of 10 July 1844 concerning a supposed attack being planned by Moturoa and Wi Tako, which Wi Tako states is ‘without foundation’. Wi Tako also challenges Wakefield’s claim that two Europeans were killed by Māori ‘on the hills (at the back of the town)’ and dismisses the claim that Te Rauparaha was the informant.

    • Traditional

  • "Te Tau a Ngatata." In ‘History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast.’ Journal of the Polynesian Society 18.72 (1909): 176-177. In Māori. Rpt. as ‘He Tau./A Chant." Nga Moteatea: He Maramara Rere No Nga Waka Maha. The Songs: Scattered Pieces From Many Canoe Areas. Comp. A. T. Ngata and trans. Pei Te Hurinui. Pt. 3. Wellington, N.Z.: Polynesian Soc., 1970. 426-429.
  • Ngatata used this tau [chant] to call upon Waikato’s aid to avenge the killing and desecration of the body of Te Karawa by Ngāti-Rua-nui.

    Other

  • Ballara, Angela. "Ngatata-i-te-rangi." The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ed. W. H. Oliver. Vol. 1. 1769-1869. Wellington, N.Z.: Allen & Unwin; Dept. of Internal Affairs, 1990: 315-316.