Mokoia Island is privately owned by local Māori iwi, who run it in conjunction with the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

[3] The island is also the location of regular Mau rākau training camps in the Māori martial art of taiaha.

The island is sacred to Māori of the Te Arawa iwi, and is the location of one of the most famous legends of New Zealand, that of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai, which has parallels with the classical Greek tale of Hero and Leander.

[4][5] According to legend, the two lovers were forbidden to marry, and Hinemoa's father Umukaria, a chief from the shores of the lake, ordered that she not be allowed to travel by canoe to Tūtānekai's tribal village on the island.

[8][9][10] The island is the setting of the Te Arawa version of the widely known traditional Māori love song "Pōkarekare Ana", which references the story of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai.