Ngāti Tūwharetoa (New Zealand people)

Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua (Tarawera River) at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Island to the lands around Mount Tongariro and Lake Taupō. Tūwharetoa is the sixth largest iwi in New Zealand, with a population of 35,877 of the 2013 New Zealand census, and 40% of its people under the age of 15. The tribe consists of a number of hapū (subtribes) represented by 33 marae (meeting places). The collective is bound together by the legacy of Ngātoro-i-rangi as epitomised in the ariki (paramount chief), currently Sir Tumu te Heuheu Tūkino VIII. In the 2013 New Zealand census 35,877 people identified as Ngāti Tūwharetoa. By the 2018 New Zealand census, there were at least 47,103 people identifying with the iwi, including 44,448 identifying with the Taupō branch, and 2,655 identifying with the Kawerau branch.