IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS
In August 1872, Heta Te Haara wrote to Sir Donald McLean1 asking to be granted a liquor
licence to open a hotel at Ohaeawai. He explains Ohaeawai is
between Hokianga and the Bay of Islands and that important Pākehā
frequent the area. He states he will send plans for the
establishment if his request is approved.2
Heta Te Haara was a prominent figure at Kaikohe and Waimate in
Northland and one of the last Ngāpuhi chiefs to sign the Treaty of
Waitangi.3 He was the chairman
of the Ngāpuhi Kotahitanga movement formed in Kaikohe in 15 April
1891 for the purpose of unifying Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whatua
and Te Aupouri.4 This movement
was effectively the first effort to make a Māori Parliament. Te
Haara lived at Ohaeawai in Northland and was involved with the
building of churches in Ohaeawai and Mangākahia and the renovation
of a temple at Waimate.
On 20 June 1902, Eru Tahere of Kaikohe visited the
Lindauer Art Gallery in Auckland, and left this comment in the
Māori Visitors' Book:
Ka nui taku whakapai i taku kitenga i ēnei tāngata, i a Heta arā
i a rātou katoa.
I am very pleased to have seen these people, Heta and all the
others.
This portrait of Te Haara was exhibited at the St. Louis World's
Fair in April 1904.5 The
painted is dated 1896 and is annotated as painting No. 4 in
Gottfried Lindauer's notebook headed 'for Mr Partridge'.
NM.
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