IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS
Mere Kuru Te Kati has been written into history as a feisty
woman.1 In today's terms she
would be a respected environmental activist. In 1875, the New
Zealand Government opened up Ohinemuri for mining and proclaimed
the district as a gold-mining region. Many stories have been told
about the fight Mere Kuru put up against the surveying and mining
of Ohinemuri. This newspaper report from 1870 is an account of the
second attempt made by Kuru and others to stop the imminent
surveying of her lands:
Mere Kuru I and five others arrived on the bank opposite where
the raft was moored. After a few Hauhau prayers and responses, the
women asked us to take the raft to where it came from. We took no
notice, and continued to stay by the raft. The women then came off
in a canoe, pulled up the anchor, and towed the raft out of the
Ohinemuri and sent it adrift in the Thames River. Next morning Mere
Kuru and Mere Titia, and four other women, arrived before
breakfast. As soon as they arrived they had prayers, Mere Kuru
sitting with an iron rod stuck in the ground in front of her. Her
hair was tied with a piece of flax, and three pheasant feathers
stuck in front. She was supported on either side by her female
executive. Prayers for the occasion were again repeated, with
numerous responses. Mere Titia then asked Mr Wood to go away, and
take his timber back... He replied that the timber was his, and
that he would fetch it where he liked... Mere Kuru then told Mr.
Wood that all Ohinemuri was hers. Paeroa was also hers. She
admitted that Mr. Wood had it on lease for the purpose of buying
pigs, potatoes, corn, &c, and keeping a store, but he had no
right to give it to other pakehas. She did not know anything about
a Crown grant having been issued for the Paeroa. It was all hers.
Whilst Mere Kuru was speaking she was brandishing her iron sceptre
far too close to be pleasant.... We determined not to take any
action in commencing the survey until Rapata arrived in
Shortland... We found Mere Kuru and her friends waiting for us, and
as soon as we were seated the Hauhau service commenced, and lasted
fully an hour. Mere Titia commenced the korero, and Mere Kuru followed in the same
strain, repeating generally the statements she had made before. She
passed her mere over the heads of ourselves and Mr. Jordan, by way
of an incantation, as Aye suppose.2
Mere disliked the idea of being sketched or photographed by Pākehā artists.
She finally agreed to sit for Lindauer on condition that a copy of
the portrait would be supplied for the tribal meeting house. Mere
Kuru died in 1905.
NM
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