Tuainane signed the Cook Strait (Henry Williams) sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 16 May 1840 at Waikanae. He was a Te Āti Awa rangatira (chief).
Tuainane settled at Waikanae in 1831 after being forced from the Pukerangiora pā (fortified village) in Taranaki by Waikato, under Te Wherowhero. At Waikanae they traded with Sydney merchants, paying for guns and ammunition with flax. When Ngāti Raukawa and Te Rauparaha attacked the Waikanae pā in 1839, Tuainane rallied his people and forced Ngāti Raukawa to withdraw. With Ngāti Toa now seen as enemies, 500 Te Āti Awa under Wiremu Kīngi te Rangitāke returned to their land at Waitara in 1842.
In 1858 Tuainane was killed in an attack on the Pukerito pā near Waitara.