Tamihana Huata

Tāmihana Huata (–1908) was a notable New Zealand teacher and missionary. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Ngāti Mihi and Ngāti Kahungunu iwi (tribe). He was born in Frasertown, near Wairoa, Hawke's Bay.

Church Missionary Society (CMS) In 1844, James Hamlin, of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), was ordained a deacon and sent to Wairoa. The chiefs of Te Wai-roa district, Pitiera Kopu and Paora Te Apatu, choose Huata to be their leader in the worship of Christianity. From 1856 he attended the Waerenga-a-hika school at the mission of the CMS which had been established by the Rev. William Williams. He undertook theological study at St. Stephen’s College in Auckland. On 25 September 1864, he was ordained as a priest. He worked as the assistant to the Rev. Hamlin until 1864, then he became the principal minister at Wairoa.

Huata opposed the Pai Mārire movement (commonly known as Hauhau) when its missionaries were active on the East Coast by 1865.

Huata became a person of influence and he settled a quarrel between the sub-tribes, Ngāti-Puku and Ngāti-Iwikatea, over the boundaries of land known as Te Wharepu Block. Huata, assisted by some of the chiefs, intervened and stopped the fighting. His grandson, the Rev. Wiremu Te Tau Huata, was chaplain to the 28th New Zealand (Maori) Battalion, who was awarded the Military Cross for his service in Italy during World War II.