Wakatu Incorporation is a Maori-owned incorporation with investments in commercial property, seafood, horticulture, forestry, tourism and wine.

Wakatu Incorporation was established in 1977 by government order in council to take over the administration of some 1,400 ha of Maori reserved land. These were the remnants of lands set aside as a condition of purchase from the original Maori owners by the New Zealand Company in 1841.

The land had been administered on behalf of its owners from 1842 to 1977 by a succession of Crown-appointed Boards, Commissioners and Trustees.

From the 1880s this land was subject to perpetual lease. Government enquiries found the leases unjust but no action was taken until the early 1970s, when a Royal Commission created the seed from which Wakatu was born.

The land was vested in Wakatu Incorporation which holds it in trust for the owners. 1,668 owners received shares in Wakatu Incorporation and are referred to as shareholders. They receive dividends and not rents. The whenua (lands) which Wakatu Incorporation administers today includes the Nelson Tenths reserves, Motueka and Mohua (Golden Bay) occupational reserves and the land, sea and tourism investments purchased since 1977. The shareholders today are descendants of the original owners, who are of Ngati Rarua, Ngati Koata, Ngati Tama and Te Atiawa Iwi.