 Parata was the son of Metapere Waipunahau, a Māori woman of high status, and George Stubbs, a whaler and trader from Australia.His grandfather Te Rangi Hīroa and his great-uncle Te Pēhi Kupe were leading rangatira amongst the Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa iwi who had settled along the Kapiti Coast.After Stubbs drowned in a boating accident off Kapiti Island in 1838, Parata and his brother were taken by their mother to the pā at Kenakena, where he grew up.