IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS
Hori Kerei Taiaroa belonged to the prominent Ngāi Tahu family of
Taiaroa. He was born and grew up in Otakou on the Otago peninsula
around the 1830s or early 1840s. His mother was Mawera of Ngāti
Rangiwhakaputa and his father was Te Matenga Taiaroa of Ngāi Te
Ruahikihiki.
Taiaroa was taught to read and write by Wesleyan missionaries.
He was christened Hori Kerei after former Governor Sir George
Grey1 but was known to his
elders as Huriwhenua. He married Tini Pana (Jane Burns) around the
late 1850s or the early 1860s at Otakou. Her mother was of Ngāi
Tuahuriri of Ngāi Tahu and her Scottish father was a farmer at
Moeraki. Hori and Tini had six sons.
Hori Kerei Taiaroa was elected to the House of Representatives
for the Southern Māori district in 1878. He served two terms in
office and left Parliament in 1884. A year later, he was called
back to Parliament to serve on the Legislative Council as a life
member. An outspoken yet pragmatic politician, he advanced Ngāi
Tahu land claims against the Government but did not live to see a
settlement outcome. Hori Kerei Taiaroa died at Wellington on 4
August 1905 and was buried in the churchyard at Otakou. He was
survived by his wife, Tini, and four sons, Te One Wiwi, Te Oti
Kerei, Riki Te Mairaki and Hoani Korako. Two sons, Matenga Kerei
(Te Maateka) and Apa, had died before him.2
This portrait is dated 1901, but in Lindauer's notebook is an
annotated entry that reads: 'No. 15. Painted the following Māori
portraits in Wellington 1877.'
NM
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