Māori of the Wellington Region

GWRC has a partnership arrangement with six mana whenua authorities of the region who continue to maintain kaitiaki roles over their ancestral lands.  

Mana whenua also have recognised overlapping interests with their iwi neighbours of the region.

Greater Wellington is home for mana whenua and taura here/matāwaka (non-mana whenua who call Wellington their home) Māori residents.

Maori residents comprise a rich mixture of tribal backgrounds. This ranges from the pre-colonial mana whenua who continue to maintain kaitiaki responsibilities over their ancestral lands, to the East Coast tribes encouraged to work and settle here by people such as Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir James Carroll.

The urban drift was evident in the post-World War 2 era due to the decline of the rural economy and the rapid development of urban industrial employers of unskilled labour (Eg Gear freezing works, Ford Motor Company).

This dynamic history and changing Maori profile in the region still influences relationships today and has an important bearing on resource management issues of the region.