Whakaahua MāoriMāori Portraits

Kewene Te Haho

oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
gift of Mr H E Partridge, 1915
1915/2/17

oil on canvas Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki gift of Mr H E Partridge, 1915 1915/2/17

Kewene Te Haho

 

Ngāti Naho, Ngāti Haua, Ngāti Whawhakia

Iwi map - Kewene Te HahoIWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS

Reputed to be nearly 90 at his death, Kewene Te Haho is reported in the West Coast Times as having died in July 1902 at his home at Te Makaka on the shores of Aotea harbour.1 Makaka was a Wesleyan outpost.2 A newspaper account estimates Kewene was born around 1813. He fought in the 1830 Taumatawiwi3 battle between Te Waharoa of Tainui and Ngāti Maru of Hauraki. Between 1835-6 Kewene Te Haho accompanied Te Waharoa on a fighting excursion to Rotorua and Maketu.4

Kewene Te Haho's son Ratapu Kewene signed the Māori Visitors' Book at the Lindauer Art Gallery on 31 January 1902 and acknowledged his father.

This portrait was exhibited at the St Louis World's Fair in 1904. A similar portrait is held in the collection of the Waikato Museum and Art Gallery.5

 

NM

  1. ‘Death of a Noted Maori Chief’, West Coast Times, issue 12264, 22 July 1902, p 3, Papers Past, accessed 25 February 2010.
  2. Ven. C. J. Abraham, Journal of a Walk with the Bishop of New Zealand, from Auckland to Taranaki in August 1855 (London: Society for the Propogation of the Gospel, 1856),http://anglicanhistory.org/nz/abraham_walk1856.html
  3. Taumatawiwi is at Maungatautari, 2km south of present-day Karapiro domain. http://www.cambridgemuseum.org.nz/Archaeological/archsites.htm
  4. 'News and Notes', Hawera & Normanby Star, Rōrahi XLII, Putanga 7523, 25 Hōngongoi 1902, p 2, Papers Past, accessed 25 February 2010
  5. ‘Louisiana Purchase Exposition’, Wikipedia – the Free Encyclopedia, accessed 28 January 2010.
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    Contributed story - Kewene Te Haho contributed by Moana Heimberg on 17 July 2012

    I am a direct descendant of Kewene Te Haho through his daughter Raihi Miraka of Aotea (Great Barrier Island).

    I noticed on the comment section that someone had purchased a copy of this portrait in a second hand shop in Zurich.  My father is Swiss and I was raised in Switzerland... and I would be very interested in meeting the person who purchased this portrait.

    I have been returning to New Zealand for the past few years to explore what our family could do with our land holdings on the Great Barrier Island.  I'm starting to get a sense of what my ancestor would have wanted his descendants in today's world.  His strength and that of his daughter Raihi Miraka continue to guide us on our path to accepting the responsibilities we carry as tribal members in today's world.  

    We are all of mixed blood but the Maori heritage compels us to return to our land and unlock the mysteries is holds.  It is my deepest desire to find solutions to the problems we face with today's political realities and I sense our ancestor's strong commitment to family is guiding us to make the right choices.

    Malibu, California

    Read full story | View
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Pito korero about Latest comments about Kewene Te Haho

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  • Anonymous

    At 4am on 28 January 2012

    Hi, I have a copy of this painting that my teenage daughter bought from a secondhand shop in Zurich, about 10 years ago. I always wondered who, or indead what, it was, which led me to do an internet search and finally find it on your site. I am not even sure what it is printed on as it is about 2cm thick. It may be may be highly polished wood or possibly some sort of plastic. Would that be a normal tourist thing? Has anyone an idea of how it got to Switzerland? Thanks, Caz

  • Anonymous

    At 1pm on 20 June 2010

    Te Makaka was not a Wesleyan outpost, but a kainga tawhito. Te Haho Kewene's hapu proper for the Manuaitu and Ruapuke areas (of which Te Makaka was one of his settlements) is Ngati Whakamarurangi.There is an existing photograph of Te Haho which exudes a power that Lindauer was unable to translate to canvas.

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  • Tangata pūkenga | The Artist

    Learn about Gottfried Lindauer, one of the best-known painters of Māori portraits. Read about his painting techniques, why the works were painted, and the role of his patron Henry Partridge.

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    Turn the pages, view the hundreds of comments and signatures, read the transcription and translation, and search by name and place. A digitisation of an historical legacy.

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