Gage George Ngati Maniapoto Nz 1895 1936

edmondsallan - Hello - Ngati Maniapoto, Te Whanau-a-Apanui and Te Whakatohea; healer, tohunga, Ringatu minister
George Gage, or Hori Te Kou-o-rehua Keeti as he was known to Maori, was born probably in 1895 or 1896 at Kihikihi, Waikato. His father, John Gage (Hone Keeti), was of Ngati Maniapoto. His mother, Rea Waitauhi Nikorima of Te Whanau-a-Apanui and Te Whakatohea of the eastern Bay of Plenty, was a tapu woman of rank. She and her sisters Ngarori and Mokeke were the matriarchal figures of the prominent Gage, Delamere and Black families respectively. Like many of her kinsfolk, Waitauhi knew Te Kooti, and she held office in the Ringatu church, sharing with others responsibility for discipline, organisation and ministering to the sick. To her people she was a tohunga, and she had an important bearing on the life of her son George.

George Gage grew up in Kawhia, one of at least seven children. When John Gage died, Waitauhi returned to her people of Te Whanau-a-Apanui. To assuage the kin group’s loss of her husband, she left George with his father’s people to be brought up by Te Kou-o-rehua, after whom he was named.

It appears that George received little or no elementary schooling, and as he lived in a predominantly Maori environment he spoke imperfect English. Family tradition has it that in Kawhia he gained a knowledge of herbal cures that was to stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. After Te Kou-o-rehua died, his mother had him brought home. Here she continued his education in healing matters and inducted him into the practices of the Ringatu church; he succeeded her as tohunga takuta (healer) of the church.

Clearing land for farming was one of the principal occupations at this time, and Gage began bushfelling in the Omarumutu district east of Opotiki. Here he met and, by 1914, married Katerina Punua Te Whakatatare of the Ngati Ruatakenga hapu of Te Whakatohea. Katerina’s main line of descent was from the chief Tutamure, down to and including Upokohapa, Kawhata and Whakatatare. George and Katerina were to have two daughters and a son. They established their first home at Kauae, later moving to Puriritahi at Otuwhare near Omaio, where Gage began farming. Katerina died in 1918 during the influenza epidemic. Eighteen years later, on 29 July 1936, in Otuwhare, Gage married a widow, Harihari Rauwharangi of Ngai Te Rangi; they had two sons.Till we meet again -Regards - edmondsallan