Ngāti Paretekawa

Ngāti Paretekawa (Paretekawa) are a very numerous hapū (sub-tribe, or clan) of the Ngāti Maniapoto confederation in New Zealand, whose ancestral tribal lands are located in both the northern King Country, including the areas around the Kakepuku, Pirongia, in the vicinity of Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Pokuru, Kakepuku, and Kawhia, with sub-hapu interests in the southern King Country area of the Mokau and Kawhia, at the foothills of Kahuwera Mountain.

Ngati Paretekawa was named after the eponymous ancestor Paretekawa, the daughter of Ngati Maniapoto chief TeKanawa, and a Ngati Hikairo woman called Whaeapare (Hikairo's sister).

Paretekawa traditions recount that the Ngati Paretekawa hapu origins became recognised in the period of Peehi Tukorehu and his Tuakana (elder brothers) Te Uaki, Te Akanui, and Te Rangihiroa and tuahine (sister) Whaeapare II. while others who descend from Tukorehu dispute this assertion, based on evidence by Te Winitana Tupotahi. Peehi Tukorehu was grandfather of Te Winitana Tupotahi, and grand-uncle of Manga Rewi Maniapoto,

According to Māori Land Court evidence given by Te Winitana Tupötahi and Te Köhika Te Huia, as a result of a disagreement between Peehi Tükörehu and one of his tuakana (elder siblings) Te Akanui, while at Haereawätea, that section of Te Akanui’s people, left the district for Kawhia, including Te Ngohi and whanau, Manga Maniapoto, Ngati Kaputuhi and others, and eventually settled in the Mokau-Kahuwera region to the south, leaving only the Ngāti Paretekawa under Peehi Tukorehu, and his elder brother Te Rangihiroa, and sister Wheapare II, and their whanau and Ngati Paretekawa hapu, and others, in occupation of their ancestral tribal lands in the Otawhao, Moeawha and Turata districts.

The eventual invasion of those lands by British forces in 1864 saw the final loss of the bulk of those ancestral tribal lands to Crown confiscation by the Crowns Government in New Zealand. Branches of Ngati Paretekawa also migrated to Taumaranui, Kawhia, and Morakopa during the Land Wars.