It is an ancient Austronesian word with cognates across the Malayo-Polynesian world, from Malay benua (now meaning "continent"), Visayan *banwa and to Rapa Nui henua; ultimately from Proto-Austronesian *banua.
Several (or many) hapū can trace their ancestry, usually on the male line, back to a particular waka, the ocean-going canoe upon which the common ancestors of that tribe arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, and this unified level is called the iwi.
Iwi must have a provable relationship with a specific area of geography, and if this is acknowledged by the national or local authority, they become the legal tangata whenua.
[5] In addition to these sorts of legally mandated requirements, when a person wishes to have land blessed, or when a sudden death occurs, an elder (kaumātua or tohunga) of the tangata whenua may be asked to perform a cleansing ritual.
Although some see it as close to (but not necessarily synonymous with) the term pākehā, the peoples who have arrived through the auspices of the monarchs of Great Britain and then of New Zealand range in ethnicity, ancestry and roots from most parts of the world including the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as many islands in the Pacific.