IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS

Kamariera Te Hau Takari Wharepapa was born at Mangākahia. In 1863 he was one of 14 Māori who travelled to England aboard the ship Ida Ziegler under the sponsorship of Wesleyan missionary William Jenkins. While in England he was presented to Queen Victoria and married Elizabeth Reid, an English housemaid. The first of their five daughters was born on the return journey to New Zealand and the family settled in Maungakahia in 1864 where Elizabeth helped her husband lobby for a school, which was eventually built.

Wharepapa's marriage to Elizabeth Reid was published in the English Mail with the headline 'Amalgamation of the Races' to make public the idea that when English fathers give consent for their daughters to marry Māori, the races are amalgamated. They were married at the parish church of St Anne, Limehouse. Miss Reid was from the parish of Marylebone and they were married by Rev. E. Day.¹

His marriage to Elizabeth Reid eventually broke down for it is said she tired of life on a Māori kāinga. Their daughter Mary Faith married artist Thomas Ryan on 1 July 1903, at St Mary's Cathedral, Auckland. Wharepapa died at Mangakahia in 1920.

While Lindauer painted this portrait in 1895, he was not the only artist to capture his likeness. Wharepapa was also photographed with Charles Goldie.

NM