Tainui (tribal association)

Tainui is a tribal association ( Māori : Waka - ; literally: boat, canoe) of four Māori - Iwi . The confederation comprises four important, related iwi in the center of New Zealand's North Island : Hauraki , Ngāti Maniapoto , Ngāti Raukawa and Waikato-Tainui .

These iwi share the common ancestry of Polynesian migrants who arrived in New Zealand with the mythical Tainui Waka . This is said to have crossed the Pacific from Hawaiki to Aotearoa in New Zealand about 800 years ago .

The representative of the Iwi in the New Zealand Parliament is Nanaia Mahuta .