Hoani Te Hau Pere

Hoani Te Hau Pere of Wairewa (Little River) was a key advocate for the Ngāi Tahu hapū of Ngāti Makō and Ngāti Irakehu in the early twentieth century, and a key informant of the traditional Māori place names of Banks Peninsula. Though there is very little information recorded about his earlier life, he was one of two children born to Hone Tututaua Pere and Keehi Te Hau. Hoani represented Wairewa in various forums, including being an inaugural representative on the Mahaanui Maori Council, and a member of the executive that organised the Māori carnival at Lancaster Park to raise funds for the council.  When George Robinson (Teoti Rapatini), the respected Ngāi Tahu leader of Wairewa, passed away in 1906, Hoani succeeded him, fulfilling a crucial role as a representative of the Ngāi Tahu hapū of Banks Peninsula in various forums.

Taare Parata

Taare Rakatauhake Parata (1865 -1918), also known as Charles Rere Parata was born at Puketeraki in 1865, the son of Tame Parata (later the MP for Southern Maori) and his wife Peti Hurene, also known as Elizabeth Brown. His paternal grandfather was Captain Pratt, a whaler from Massachusetts. In 1896, Parata was a working for the Native Land Court as a clerk and licensed interpreter. He married Katherine Te Rongokahira Asher (Te Arawa) and together they had three children. The couple strongly supported the manifesto of what become the Young Māori Party. They often spent time in Wellington where Parata set up a Māori language school after they moved there permanently in 1905. He left his position with the Native Land Court and joined William Moffatt in business as land and estate agents, interpreters and native agents. Following his father's elevation to the Legislative Council in 1911, Parata succeeded his father as Member of Parliament for the Southern Maori electorate and held the seat until 1918, when he died in Wellington.

Taara Parata records place names from Hone Tututaua Pere and Hoani Te Hau Pere

On 25 November 1908 at Kaiapoi Taare Parata verbally obtained from Hoani Te Hau Pere and his father Hone Tututaua Pere detailed descriptions of the Māori place names and their associated meanings for the bays along the southern coastline of Banks Peninsula between Akaroa Harbour and Wairewa (Lake Forsyth). Hoani and Taare already knew each other. In the previous year they both attended a major hui of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Māmoe representatives at Arowhenua to discuss the recently passed South Island Landless Natives Act. At the time Taare recorded this information Hone Tututaua Pere was described ‘as an old Native of Little River’ and passed away a short time later in 1911.

Click here to view the map on Kareao.

Johannes Andersen

Taare Parata passed the information he gathered from Hoani Te Hau Pere and Hone Tututaua Pere onto ethnologist Johannes Andersen at the Christchurch office of the Department of Lands and Survey. Andersen was born in Denmark and emigrated to New Zealand with his family as a child. He wrote poetry, studied New Zealand flora and fauna, and pursued an interest in Māori mythology. He worked for the Department of Lands and Survey in Christchurch from 1887 until 1915. During this period he acquired a wealth of topographical knowledge and developed an avid interest in toponymy - the study of place names, both Māori and Pākehā.

This was part of a much larger effort of the Department to actively gather and preserve local Māori place names as directed by the Surveyor General Stevenson Percy Smith in 1893. Andersen later published the place names provided by Hoani Te Hau Pere and Hone Tututaua Pere in his 1927 publication Place Names of Banks Peninsula: A Topographical History. In this publication Andersen recorded Hoani Te Hau Pere's name as Tama-peri and Hone Tututaua Pere as Tu-tu-taua.

Herries Beattie interviews Hoani Te Hau Pere

James Herries Beattie (1881 - 1972), known as Herries, was the most prolific collector of Ngāi Tahu histories, place names and traditions. Born at Gore to to Scottish immigrant parents, Beattie developed from an early age a wide-ranging and lasting interest in the traditional lifestyle and history of Ngāi Tahu in southern New Zealand. Beattie developed a passion for Kāi Tahu and Kāti Māmoe history with his work published by regional newspapers and journals of the Polynesia Society and New Zealand Institute. In 1920 the Otago Museum funded an ethnological research project which enabled Beattie to visit and interview kaumātua in several kāika throughout Te Waipounamu. On a salary of £5 per week Beattie travelled by train and bicycle to isolated Ngāi Tahu communities to interview Ngāi Tahu people.

As part of this research project Beattie travelled to Banks Peninsula in September 1920. He initially stayed with Riki Te Mairaki Taiaroa at Taumutu where he first met Hoani Te Hau Pere at the nearby fishing camp on Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere). During Beattie’s two day visit at Taumutu, he gathered information from Hoani about the Māori lore of tuna (eel), pātiki (flounders) and other fish, and the traditional Māori place names of Banks Peninsula. When Beattie travelled onwards to Akaroa, he visited Hoani at Wairewa to interview him again. Beattie described Hoani as ‘a big intelligent Māori’. The excerpt below is from one of Herries Beattie's notebook outlining the Māori place names that he recorded from Hoani on 30 September 1920. Beattie published these place names in his 1945 publication Maori Placenames of Canterbury.