New Zealand's indigenous people, the Maori, settled in what is now Porirua City in three main movements. The first was several centuries ago, when tribes from northern areas became the first human inhabitants. The second was in the 1820s, when another tribe from the north (around Kawhia), the Ngati Toa, migrated under chief Te Rauparaha and eased their way into settlements, primarily at Takapuwahia west of the harbour and Hongoeka Bay on the north shore at the mouth. A Porirua resident was one of the first major contributors to a Maori-language encyclopaedia.