In some traditions the navigator credited with discovering New Zealand is Kupe, who lived in the mythical ancestral homeland of the Maori, Hawaiiki. But Ngati Kuri are an ancient iwi who descend from the first people to settle in Te Hiku o Te Ika (the tail of the fish). Ruatamore of the waka Taikoria followed by Te Ngake of the waka Tahirirangi were the founding people of New Zealand.

Ruatamore landed his waka at Rarawa beach and named his Pa site Wharekapua (house in the clouds). These Ngati Kuri ancestors, known as the people of Te Ngake preceded the arrival of the most contemporary wave of migratory waka from Polynesia by several centuries. Ngati Kuri kaumatua can recite 23 generations from these principal people and to the arrival of Pohurihanga and the waka Kurahaupo. 

Ngati Kuri ancestors have occupied the northern-most lands of Aotearoa through the generations to the present. They maintain tribal mana and kaitiakitanga over their rohe through mana tupuna (ancestral right) and ahikaroa (continuous occupation). Their contemporary rohe extends from Maunga Tohoraha  (Mt Camel) in the east to Hukatere in the west north-west to Motuopao, across to Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga) and then east to Murimotu, including Manawatawhi (Three Kings Islands) and the Kermadec Islands.

Ngati Kuri are the tangata whenua and kaitiaki (guardians) of Te Rerenga Wairua, the departing point of the spirits, at the end of Te Ara Wairua, the spiritual pathway that leads along Te Oneroa a Tohe on the western flank of the Ngati Kuri rohe. Te Ara Wairua and Te Rerenga Wairua are of great significance to all Maori as the spiritual link to the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki.

Today Ngati Kuri live throughout New Zealand, and many are actively involved with keeping their culture and language alive. The marae (a communal meeting place) provides a focus for social, cultural and spiritual life, and includes a wharenui (meeting house) and wharekai
(dining room).

Maori people define themselves by their iwi (tribe), hapu (sub-tribe), maunga (mountain) and awa (river). Whanau is the name given to family - the term embraces immediate family, in-laws and all those connected by blood ties.

In recent years, the introduction of Maori language nests (kohanga reo) has revived the Maori language. At kohanga reo, preschool children are encouraged to speak in Maori. Primary and secondary schools build on this early immersion by including Maori in the curriculum.

In 1839 the British Crown decided to bring New Zealand under its protection and authorised Captain William Hobson to treat with Maori. In the resulting Te Tiriti o Waitangi the Crown 

promised to protect the rights and interests of Maori in their lands, resources and 

chieftainship, and to provide an equal standard of citizenship for Maori and Pakeha. 

The British Government intended to protect Maori in relation to the purchasing of land. 

The Secretary of State for War and the Colonies instructed Hobson that all land dealings with Maori should be conducted on the principles of “sincerity, justice and good faith” adding that Maori “must not be permitted to enter into any contracts in which they might be the ignorant and unintentional authors of injuries to themselves”. Further, the acquisition of land for 

European settlers “must be confined to such districts as the natives can alienate, without 

distress or inconvenience to themselves”.

In 1840, at a place called Waitangi - in the Bay of Islands - the Maori chief Hone Heke became the first of 46 to sign the founding document of bi-cultural New Zealand. More than 500 Maori leaders followed. The National Trust exhibition at Waitangi gives a compelling insight into the birth pains that still stir in New Zealand’s continuing formation.

Ngati Kuri did not sign Te Tiriti o Waitangi when Hobson brought it to Kaitaia in April 1840. Crown authorities had little presence in the Ngati Kuri rohe over the following decades and 

tikanga Maori (customary law) largely prevailed. The Crown’s authority to govern derived in part from Te Tiriti, and fulfilment of its Te Tiriti obligations to Ngati Kuri.

Today Maori and non-Maori share the closeness of growing up together in the Birthplace of a Nation and it is remembered annually on February 6 - Waitangi Day.

In 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sailed around New Zealand and charted the country’s west coast from Hokitika up to Cape Maria van Diemen, but the land did not feel European footsteps until 127 years later when British captain James Cook first visited New Zealand in 1769. He circumnavigated and mapped both the North and South Islands, returning to Britain with reports about the country’s inhabitants, natural beauty and resources. 

By the beginning of the 19th century, Northland’s bays were giving shelter to sealers and 

whaling boats from many nations. With traders came muskets, with settlers came missionaries, with land and property ownership came bloodshed.

From its beginings around March 1834 when land for a Mission Station was aquired, Kaitaia 

is one of the country’s oldest European towns. The Kaitaia Mission Station was first 

established in 1834 by the missionaries Joseph Matthews and William Gilbert Puckey. 

The regions European history was greatly shaped by the discovery of kauri gum, farming, 

and the arrival of Missionaries.

Kaitaia has a long history of Maori occupation and the region retains a strong Maori culture today. Originally the Maori village at Kaitaia was reached by canoe from Rangaunu Harbour 

via the Awanui River.

Maori cooperated with European building, planting and road making, and grew wheat and food crops. Maori owned their own ship The Fairy, which transported their produce to Auckland. After the 1860s Kaitaia expanded rapidly when kauri gumdiggers arrived, many 

from Dalmatia.

Timber and Kauri gum industries and the good fertile farming land around Kaitaia combined with the port facilities at Awanui resulted in the establishment of Kaitaia as the commercial centre for the district. The region is now mainly agricultural and much of New Zealands avocados come from this district.