A group of Māori iwi based in the Waikato region of the North Island, part of the wider Tainui confederation descended from the Tainui waka. Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the first Māori King (elected 1858), was a member of Waikato's Ngāti Mahuta hapū, and Waikato Tainui remains the base of the Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement), headquartered at Tūrangawāewae marae in Ngāruawāhia. A living iwi of over 80,000 affiliates today, governed by Te Kauhanganui.
A living iwi confederation of the Waikato; its 1995 raupatu settlement was the first landmark agreement of the modern Treaty era.
Gorst's 1864 first-hand account of the Kingitanga's origins and the Waikato on the eve of war, the classic contemporary source on the Maori King Movement.
Covers the Waikato Wars (1863-64) and land confiscations that profoundly shaped Waikato Tainui's modern history.