Tame Parata (1837 – 6 March 1917), also known as Thomas Pratt, was a Māori and a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in New Zealand. Parata was born on Ruapuke Island in

Foveaux Strait The Foveaux Strait, (, or , ) separates Stewart Island, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. The strait is about 130 km long (from Ruapuke Island to Little Solander Island), and it widens (from 14 km at Ruap ...

. His father was a Captain Trapp, a whaler from Massachusetts, and his mother was Koroteke of the Ngāi Tahu,

Ngāti Mamoe Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

and Waitaha tribes. It is said that Tame reversed his father's name to ''Pratt'', and transliterated it to ''Parata'' in Māori. He won the

Southern Maori Southern Maori was one of New Zealand's four original parliamentary Māori electorates established in 1868, along with Eastern Maori, Western Maori and Eastern Maori. In 1996, with the introduction of MMP, the Maori electorates were updated, an ...

electorate in the

1885 by-election Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 &ndash ...

after the resignation of Hōri Kerei Taiaroa, and held it to 1911, when he retired; he was succeeded in the electorate by his youngest son, Taare Parata. Subsequently on 13 June 1912 Parata Sr was appointed to the

New Zealand Legislative Council The New Zealand Legislative Council was the upper house of the General Assembly of New Zealand between 1853 and 1951. An earlier arrangement of legislative councils for the colony and provinces existed from 1841 when New Zealand became a co ...

, where he sat until he died on 6 March 1917. Hekia Parata, a former member of Parliament, is his great-great-granddaughter.

Notes

References

* * * 1837 births 1917 deaths Ngāi Tahu people New Zealand Liberal Party MPs Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council New Zealand MPs for Māori electorates New Zealand Liberal Party MLCs Māori MLCs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand people of American descent People from Ruapuke Island 19th-century New Zealand politicians {{NewZealand-Liberal-politician-stub