Matiu Waitai Rata (26 March 1934 – 25 July 1997) was a Māori politician who was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 1963 to 1980, and a cabinet minister from 1972 to 1975.

The Waitangi Tribunal he was instrumental in establishing would be his most lasting and significant contribution to the nation's political history.

His father died in a logging accident when he was 10, in December 1944; his mother Mereana moved to Freemans Bay in Auckland with her four children to find work as a cleaner.

Paikea died in January 1963, and Rata won the resulting by-election, becoming a Member of Parliament in March 1963 at the age of 28.

[3] In 1980 he resigned from Parliament and formed the Mana Motuhake Party to contest the resulting 1980 by-election.

In 1994 he retired from the Mana Motuhake leadership in favour of Alliance MP Sandra Lee.

[4] Rata died on 25 July 1997 from injuries received eight days earlier when his car was hit head on by a vehicle driven by a foreign tourist who reportedly fell asleep at the wheel.