Waitaha is an early MÃÂori iwi who inhabited the South Island of New Zealand. They were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest â first by the NgÃÂti MÃÂmoe and then by NgÃÂi Tahu â from the 16th century onward. Today those of Waitaha descent are represented by the NgÃÂi Tahu iwi. Like NgÃÂi Tahu today, Waitaha was itself a collection of various ancient iwi. KÃÂti RÃÂkai was said to be one of Waitaha's hapà «.
Some of Waitaha's earliest ancestors are traditionally traced as arrivals from Te Patunui-o-ÃÂio in Eastern Polynesia aboard the canoe (waka), of which RÃÂkaihautà « had been the captain. He was accompanied by his wife and son, Waiariki-o-ÃÂio and Te Rakihouia, the renowned (astronomer) Matiti, Waitaa, and other kin of the Te KÃÂhui Tipua, Te KÃÂhui Roko, and Te KÃÂhui Waitaha iwi. When genealogies are interpreted with 25âÂÂ30 years' worth of lifespan for at least 34 generations, these people are calculated to have lived in or around the 9th century at the latest, but this is not an entirely reliable way to trace earlier occupants of New Zealand.
A traditional story tells how RÃÂkaihautà « used Kapakitua, his adze, to cut a path through heavy fog on the canoe's voyage. Other traditional stories such as the story of NgàPuna Wai Karikari o RÃÂkaihautà « (roughly translated as "The Flowing Water Diggings of RÃÂkaihautà «"), credit RÃÂkaihautà « with travelling down the Southern Alps to Foveaux Strait from Boulder Bank, digging up many great lakes and waterways with Tà «whakarà Âria â his magical (digging stick), and filling them with food as he went. Te Rakihouia and Waitaa also journeyed down along the east coast as far south as the Clutha River. The two groups met up near the Waitaki River, where the is still said to lie as part of the riverbed today. The party then moved back northwards to live at Banks Peninsula, where RÃÂkaihautà « renamed to , thrusting it into a hill called Pà «hai where it turned into the rocky peak known to PÃÂkehàtoday as Mount Bossu. According to Sir ÃÂpirana Ngata, it is "very doubtful" that RÃÂkaihautà « went south at all, saying specifically in an audio recording with John Te Herekiekie Grace:
A daughter of RÃÂkaihautà «, Te Uhi-tataraiakoa, stayed behind in Te Patunui-o-ÃÂio, and became the great-grandmother of Toi. Eight generations after Toi there lived Waitaha-nui and after him Waitaha-araki, after whom there came HÃÂwea-i-te-raki, and finally seven generations later lived HotumÃÂmoe from Hastings, the founding ancestor of NgÃÂti MÃÂmoe. In addition, Te KÃÂhea was a fifth generation descendant of Toi, and RÃÂhiri was also a 16th generation descendant. Tà «haitara from Hastings, a famed NgÃÂi Tahu ancestress, was said to have some NgÃÂti MÃÂmoe ancestry. Her husband Marukore was a local with Te KÃÂhea ancestry. Waiwhero and Hekeia were Waitaha chiefs, with Te Anau being the latter's granddaughter and Aparima being his mother. Otaraia was the name of another chief.
Waitaha's pÃÂ included O whitianga te ra ("place of the shining sun"), close to the southern end of Lake Te Anau a site at the Taerutu Lagoon near Woodend, a site at the mouth of Mata-au, a site in the Oamaru area, and a site around Lake Wakatipu.
At the time NgÃÂti MÃÂmoe migrated to the South Island from Te Whanganui-a-Tara about the 16th century, all the South Island's ancient iwi including the original Waitaha, Te KÃÂhui Tipua, Te KÃÂhui Roko, Te Rapuwai, NgÃÂti Hawea, and NgÃÂti Wairangi were all collectively grouped together as . This happened again to KÃÂti MÃÂmoe when NgÃÂi Tahu conquered the South Island in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In 1995, a book by controversial author Barry Brailsford, Song of Waitaha: The Histories of a Nation, claimed that the ancestors of a "Nation of Waitaha" were the first inhabitants of New Zealand, three groups of people of different races, two of light complexion and one of dark complexion, who had arrived in New Zealand from an unspecified location in the Pacific Ocean, 67 generations before the book appeared. They lived peacefully until the MÃÂori arrived in New Zealand and destroyed their culture, except for a remnant of the Waitaha, who were the Moriori of the Chatham Islands. He claimed that knowledge of the history of the Waitaha was kept secret, until he had visions and the knowledge was revealed to him.
Although a series of further books, web sites and events have addressed these claims, they have been widely disputed and dismissed by scholars. Historian Michael King noted: "There was not a skerrick of evidence – linguistic, artifactual, genetic; no datable carbon or pollen remains, nothing – that the story had any basis in fact. Which would make Waitaha the first people on earth to live in a country for several millennia and leave no trace of their occupation."
Several organisations have as part of their title, often as a synonym for Canterbury or in a generic "ancient links to the land" sense. Some are: