Waata Pihikete Kukutai

Waata Pihikete Kukutai (died 8 January 1867) was a New Zealand Māori tribal leader, farmer and assessor.

At an 1857 meeting at Paetai, near Rangiriri, to discuss proposals for a Māori kingship, Kukutai led a contingent that paraded under the Union Jack.

Although opposed to land-selling, he spoke against the establishment of the kingship and supported the appointment of magistrates, laws and a form of rūnanga or council.

The Government introduced written laws, magistrates and courts, built a printing press to inform Māori of government decisions and helped establish a trade school in the Te Awamutu area where Christianity was popular among Maori.

[1] Kukutai and Wiremu Te Wheoro assisted British forces in the military invasion of the Waikato in July 1863, building and occupying a pa at Te Ia, (near Mercer) and transporting supplies for the British from steamers at Waikato Heads upriver to the Camerontown redoubt, until the supply line was severed by a Ngati Maniapoto attack in September.