Tainui

The korupe (carving over the window frame) at Mahina-a-Rangi meeting house at Turangawaewae Marae, Ngāruawāhia showing the Tainui canoe with its captain Hoturoa. Above the canoe is Te Hoe-o-Tainui, a famous paddle, the kete (basket) given to Whakaotirangi by a tohunga of Hawaiki, the bird Parakaraka (front) who was able to see in the dark, and another bird who warned of approaching daylight.[1] Photograph by Albert Percy Godber circa 1930s

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.

  1. ^ "Maori meeting houses of the North Island" by John C M Cresswell, 1977 (p 31)

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