Ko Ruapehu te Maunga
Ko Ngā Turi o Murimotu te Maunga Tapu
Ko Whangaehu te Awa
Ko Ngāti Rangi te Iwi

Ngāti Rangi is an ancient pre-migration iwi. The people emerged from the time of Maui as descendants of Moururu, an ancestor older than Kupe. Indeed it is from Kupe that the phrase was coined in relation to Te Kāhui Maunga that the fires of occupation were already burning on his arrival.

The tribal identity comes from Paerangi-i-te-whare toka (Paerangi) and is linked to the mountain region of the central plateau – Te Kāhui Maunga. Ngāti Rangi is bound primarily by three descendants of Paerangi: Rangituhia, Rangiteauria and Uenuku-manawa-wiri. On the arrival of Aotea, the intermarriages of their descendants with the people of Aotea, particularly Hau-nui-ā-Pāpārangi built a close affiliation with the hapū that developed in the Whanganui river region. However, Ngāti Rangi maintains a unique and independent identity within the region, as the first iwi to populate the mountain area of the central plateau and the Whanganui River basin.