Tamatea Urehaea

Sources present Tamatea Urehaea as a chiefly descendant in the Tākitimu genealogical corpus. He is described as the son of Rongokako (in some accounts) and grandson or descendant of Tamatea Arikinui / Tamatea Mai-Tawhiti; traditions vary regionally and sometimes conflate Tamatea Urehaea with his grandfather Tamatea Arikinui. He is associated with arrival from or descent linked to Hawaiki, and with leadership of a canoe (Tākitimu) and a crew of seventy men. His lineage and actions (including the birth of his son Kahungunu) are used to establish tribal descent and legal/ritual ties to particular lands.

The available traditions represent Tamatea primarily through his deeds, names, and genealogical roles rather than a physical portrait; no detailed physical description (height, complexion, clothing) is provided in the cited sources. His epithets record bodily and performative aspects—Urehaea ('cut penis', indicating circumcision), Pōkai-moana ('explorer of the seas'), and Pōkai-whenua ('explorer of the land')—which encapsulate rites and accomplishments.

Accounts attribute to Tamatea exceptional practical skills and leadership: masterful navigation and exploration (traditions say he 'circumnavigated both islands of New Zealand'), commanding and provisioning the Tākitimu canoe with some seventy crew, founding settlements and establishing ritual land-links (notably burying his son Kahungunu's umbilical cord with three whatu-kura to create an iho-whenua), large-scale hunting (removing kererū in abundance at places renamed for food surplus), and undertaking major engineering efforts in warfare (attempting to dig a trench to flood Kaitaia). In regional mythic variants these historical acts are interwoven with landscape-transforming episodes (e.g., in a South Island account his wrecked canoe becomes the Takitimu Mountains and Tongariro's fire dries the strait); these are presented as localized mythic elaborations rather than standardized supernatural powers.