Wiremu Parata
Maori chief and politician
Te Kākākura Waipunaahau (c. 1835 – 29 September 1906), more widely known as Wiremu Parata, was a New Zealand politician of Māori and Pākehā descent. During the 1870s, he was a member of the House of Representatives and a Minister of the Crown.
Early years, and farming
Te Kākākura was the son of Metapere Waipunaahau, a Māori woman of high status, and George Stubbs, a whaler and trader from Australia. His grandfather Te Rangi Hīroa and his great-uncle Te Pēhi Kupe were leading rangatira amongst the Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa iwi who had settled along the Kāpiti Coast.
After Stubbs drowned in a boating accident off Kapiti Island in 1838, Te Kākākura and his brother were taken by their mother to the pā at Kenakena, where he was raised. It was about this time that a missionary gave him the name "Brother William" (transliterated to "Wiremu Parata" or the short form "Wi Parata").
In 1852, Parata married his second wife, Unaiki; little is known of his first marriage. Parata and Unaiki are thought to have had eleven children.
In the late 1860s, Parata became a farmer and owned about 1,600 sheep by the mid-1870s.
The public source identifies “Wiremu Parata” as maori chief and politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wiremu, Parata and Maori.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Wiremu Parata”, the useful work is to connect “maori chief and politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8026922. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835, 1906, 1838 and 1852.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wiremu Parata”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wiremu Parata primary sources, Wiremu Parata archive and Wiremu research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wiremu Parata”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wiremu Parata” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.