Ihakara Porutu "Kara" Puketapu (26 February 1934 – 7 July 2023) was a New Zealand public servant and Māori leader.
He served as Secretary of Maori Affairs and was later chair of Te Āti Awa based in Waiwhetū, Lower Hutt.
[7] In 1973, Puketapu was appointed chief administration officer with Foreign Affairs in the New Zealand House in London, Great Britain.
[10] In 2008, Puketapu resigned from the Port Nicholson Block Treaty Settlement Trust chaired by Sir Ngatata Love over the compensation for Waiwhetū land confiscated by the Crown in the 1940s.
These units worked with local communities to devise programmes to support cultural and economic aspirations, thus reversing the normal "top down" approach of government departments.