Marutūāhu

Marutūāhu (also spelled, Marutūahu or Marutuahu) is a confederation of Māori iwi (tribes) in the Hauraki region (the Hauraki Gulf, Coromandel Peninsula and Hauraki Plains) of New Zealand. The confederation comprises the tribes of Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Whanaunga and Ngāti Rongoū.

The Marutūāhu tribes are descended from Marutūāhu, a son of Hotunui. Ngāti Maru tradition says that Hotunui arrived in New Zealand on the Tainui canoe around 1300, but Pei Te Hurinui Jones reports that he was the son of Uenuku-te-rangi-hōkā, son of Whatihua and thus a fifteen-generation descendant of the captain of Tainui canoe, Hoturoa. In this case, he would have lived at the end of the sixteenth century. Either way, the Marutūāhu tribes are therefore part of the Tainui group of tribes. They are also part of the Hauraki collective of tribes.

Marutūāhu married two sisters, Hineurunga and Paremoehau, and had five sons:

• Tamatepō, ancestor of Ngāti Rongoū
• Tamaterā, ancestor of Ngāti Tamaterā
• Whanaunga, ancestor of Ngāti Whanaunga
• Te Ngako, ancestor of Ngāti Maru
• Tāurukapakapa, ancestor of the Ngāti Te Aute hapū

Paremoehau was mother of the older three sons, while Hineurunga was the mother of Te Ngako and Tāurukapakapa. Although Te Ngako and Tāurukapakapa were younger than their half-brothers, Hineurunga was the tuakana (eldest sister), which gave Te Ngako the mana of being tuakana to his older brothers. Hence his descendants are called Ngāti Maru, not Ngāti Te Ngako. The Hauraki Ngāti Maru say that the Ngāti Maru of Taranaki are descended from Marutūāhu's brother Maruwharanui, but the Taranaki Ngāti Maru appear to give him a different parentage. The descendants of a third brother, Marukōpiri, settled on the Whanganui river.