Parata was the son of Metapere Waipunahau, a Māori woman of high status, and George Stubbs, a whaler and trader from Australia.

[2] After Stubbs drowned in a boating accident off Kapiti Island in 1838, Parata and his brother were taken by their mother to the pā at Kenakena, where he grew up.

He was, by then, relatively wealthy, and owned the largest farm in the area of Waikanae, a town which was initially named after him ("Parata Township").

In 1871, he was elected to the House of Representatives as the member for the Western Maori constituency, defeating the incumbent Mete Kīngi Paetahi.

The ruling had far-reaching consequences, as it was invoked as precedent during subsequent claims brought for breaches of the Treaty, well into the twentieth century.