Rangatira

[2][need quotation to verify] The concept of a rangatira is central to rangatiratanga—a Māori system of governance, self-determination and sovereignty.

[4] Cognate words are found in Moriori, Tahitian (i.e. the raʻatira in the name Tāvini Huiraʻatira), Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, Marquesan and Hawaiian.

[citation needed] Three interpretations of rangatira consider it as a compound of the Māori words "ranga" and "tira".

This interpretation fits well with a second translation where "ranga" is an abbreviation of rāranga (or weaving) and "tira" signifies a group.

[5](p196) This type of relationship is similar to the mahara atawhai (endearment or "benevolent concern") offered in the Treaty of Waitangi’s preamble by Queen Victoria, reflecting the pre-nineteenth century "personal bond between the ruler and subject".

Īhāia Te Kirikūmara (died 1873), a 19th-century rangatira
A sign explaining the tangata whenua history of The Bricks, Christchurch