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
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