Moetara, later also known as Moetara Motu Tongaporutu (died 23 December 1838), was a tribal leader, agriculturalist and trader of the Ngāti Korokoro subtribe of the

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (also known as Ngāpuhi-Nui-Tonu or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland regions of New Zealand centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2023 New Zealand census, the estimate ...

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , 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. ...

that lived on the south side of the

Hokianga The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long Estuary, estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. The original name, still used by local Mā ...

, New Zealand. When Moetara was a young man, his uncle Mauwhena (or Mauhena) was the chief of Ngāti Korokoro. In 1819, Moetara had a leadership position under Patuone, Nene and Tuwhare in a fighting expedition of northern tribes that travelled down the west coast of the North Island as far as Wellington. During the expedition two of Moetara's cousins died in Taranaki and it may have been because of this that he took the additional name Motu Tongaporutu, the name of a

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori people, Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive :wikt:terrace, terraces – and also to fo ...

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

. When European ships started coming to the Hokianga for timber in the 1820s, Ngāti Korokoro under Mauwhena were well placed to profit from supplying them with food. One visiting captain, John Rodolphus Kent, married Moetara's sister, Wharo. Moetara continued to take part in war expeditions in the mid 1820s. By 1827, Moetara was the chief at Pakanae, near

Opononi Opononi is a settlement on the south shore of Hokianga Harbour in Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. New Zealand State Highway 12, State Highway 12 runs through Opononi. Ōmāpere is on the shore to the south of Opononi and Pakanae is to ...

. His cousin Kahi, leader of Te Hikutu, also lived there with about 100 of his subtribe. On 20 March 1834, Moetara participated in a meeting at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands to select a flag for New Zealand. In October 1835, he signed the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand. Moetara died on 23 December 1838. He was succeeded as chief of Ngāti Korokoro by his brother Rangatira, who took the name Rangatira Moetara, and signed the Treaty of Waitangi as such in 1840.

References

1838 deaths New Zealand traders Ngāpuhi people New Zealand Māori farmers 19th-century New Zealand farmers People from the Hokianga Year of birth unknown {{Māori-bio-stub