Ngāi Tahu are a resilient, entrepreneurial people who made Te Waipounamu their home over 800 years ago. Ngāi Tahu tīpuna were long-distance seafarers, riding the ocean currents and navigating by stars on voyaging waka from Hawaiki Nui.

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 Mahanga and Kahurangi Point in the north to Stewart Island / …

Ngāi Tahu means “people of Tahu” and all registered tribal members can trace their ancestry back to the tribe’s founder Tahu Pōtiki. Whakapapa speaks to more than our relationships with each other; it links us with the land, the sea, the environment, our world and our universe.

The traditions and histories of Waitaha, Māmoe, and Tahu were woven into a single world view, uniting Ngāi Tahu as mana whenua, the tribal authority, from Te Parinui o Whiti across to Kahurangi Point on Te Tai o Poutini. Ngāi Tahu had its first contact with European sealers and whalers from around 1795.

Migrating from the North Island’s East Coast, Ngāi Tahu thrived in the South Island. They intermarried with local tribes, and adopted their beliefs. Their lands cover much of Te Wai Pounamu – the South Island – and are New Zealand’s largest single tribal territory.

Kareao is the official website of the Ngāi Tahu Archive. Kareao provides unprecedented access to the Ngāi Tahu Archive, which includes manuscripts, photographs, maps, biographies, oral histories, taonga, and audio-visual material.

Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori iwi of the southern region of New Zealand. Its takiwā is the largest in New Zealand, Read more

The overwhelming desire of whānau was the creation of a Ngāi Tahu geographical and historical atlas of place names for Te Waipounamu. The concept of a Ngāi Tahu Atlas provided the much-needed direction and focus for the vast amount of cultural mapping work that was occurring throughout the Ngāi Tahu rohe.

Ngāi Tahu, also known as Kāi Tahu, is the iwi which makes up a majority of Te Waipounamu (the South Island). Ngāi Tahu travelled to Aotearoa about 800 years ago, making this our home. Waitaha, one of the first tribal groups, travelled to Te Waipounamu from up north, settling in the Canterbury Plains.

Ngāi Tahu culture and traditions help to define who we are and where we have come from as a people. Ngāi Tahutanga is our inherited common identity, it guides us in all our decisions and underpins everything Te Rūnanga sets out to achieve.