Today, they have many awesome initiatives, including educational and agricultural efforts, like a nursery where they are growing native plants! (Check out https://makauraumarae.co.nz/about/our-history/ and https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395281/ihumatao-land-battle-a-timeline for more history!)
Ihumātao has a lot of historical significance. It is where Hape landed, carried on the back of a taniwha (sea god) in the shape of a sting ray over from Hawaiki. He was originally supposed to sail with other families from Hawaiki, but they left him behind, so he used his mana to pray to Tangaroa (similar to Hawaiʻi's Kanaloa!) for help. The stingray taniwha arrived and he rode it all the way to Aotearoa. When he disembarked, he left footprints in the rock that he landed on, and he walked up to a flat hill to look out over the area. This hill was then called Te Puke Tapapa Tangata o Hape, the resting place of Hape. When the other families arrived on their waka (waʻa), they saw his footprints and realized that even though they left him behind, he had beaten them to the new land of Aotearoa!
Now, Te Puke Tapapa Tangata o Hape is called called Ihumātao, an abbreviated form of Te-Ihu-o-Mataoho, the nose of Mataoho, who is a volcanic atua or deity. (Do you recognize the word "ihu"? It also means nose in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi!) Many of the other mountains in the area are also body parts of Mataoho, like Te Upoko o Mataoho and Ngā Tapuwae o Mataoho.
