Tamati Waka Nene was probably born in the 1780s. He was the second son of Tapua, leader and tohunga of Ngāti Hao of Hokianga, and the younger brother of Eruera Maihi Patuone. His mother was Te Kawehau.
By the mid-1830s, Nene had converted to the Wesleyan faith and was baptised in 1839, taking the name Tamati Waka, after Thomas Walker, an English merchant patron of the Church Missionary Society. Nene lived in the
Hokianga when it was a thriving and prosperous trading society and was said to have been an astute businessman and kindly by nature. Nene saw the advantages of having Pākehā (Europeans) shipping traders in the area,
and helped settlers as well as Wesleyan missionaries establish themselves there in 1827. Tamati Waka Nene died on 4 August 1871 and was buried, at his own request, in a churchyard in the Bay of Islands.
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