Early tribal occupants of the Aro Valley included Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Ruanui, Muaūpoko and Ngāti Mamoe. In the 1830s Taranaki iwi Te Āti Awa settled at its western end. The stream itself was an important food source for Māori. It was called Waimapihi – in Maori, "the stream or bathing place" of Mapihi, a local chieftainess of Muaūpoko and Ngāti Mamoe descent. These small communities adapted as best they could to the influx of British settlers that began in 1840, but they took a blow in 1855 when an earthquake raised the low-lying land draining the marshes and cutting off their main source of both food and flax for trading. This misfortune, combined with widespread illness, migration back to Taranaki to settle land disputes, and pressure from settlers for land, gradually saw the Māori population of Te Aro dwindle.