Haimona Pita Matangi

Haimona Pita Matangi (born Matangi; –1839) was a Māori rangatira (chief) of Waimā.

Family Matangi was born around 1780. His father was Te Wharemaru, a local rangatira in the Hokianga region. He was the nephew of Kauteāwhā and Tarewhare, and sibling to Karaitiana and Kūranga. He was believed to be the cousin and/or son-in-law of Makoare Te Taonui. He had five sons, including Pāora Mohi, and one daughter.

Biography Matangi was strongly involved with early missionaries in New Zealand, having met Thomas Kendall and John King in Hokianga on 29 June 1819, and Samuel Marsden in Ōraka on 29 September 1819. He himself converted to Christianity in late 1833, taking the baptismal name Haimona Pita, a Māori transliteration of the name Simon Peter, upon his Methodist baptism by the Reverend William White on 23 December 1833.

On 29 March 1836,

He died at Utakura in Hokianga on 1 January 1839, being over 60 years old.