Princess Te Puea 1930 1946 Waikato Nz

edmondsallan - Hello - What a fascinating life's story . WE can see the Ancestral determination coming to fore .In 1940 Te Puea was able to buy a farm close to the marae, which she hoped would bring in an income to sustain Turangawaewae. She and her husband Rawiri Tumokai Katipa (whom she had married at the wish of the kahui ariki in 1922) lived there for the next 12 years, and a whole generation grew up working on the farm. Te Puea left the Kingitanga strong because of the central beliefs with which the young people grew to adulthood: faith, dedication to the Kingitanga, respect for kawa, the importance of caring for visitors, and the value of hard work. Each day began and ended with Pai Marire karakia, drawing the people together from wherever they were working. This day-to-day expression of unity was of great importance to Te Puea; it reflected long-held Kingitanga beliefs that the burden of the wars and the confiscation must be carried by the people together if they were to find the strength to survive it. So Te Puea never mentioned hapu (though she was an acknowledged expert on whakapapa); nor did she encourage the people to identify themselves by hapu. They thought of themselves as Waikato.
By the late 1930s Te Puea and the Kingitanga had attracted increasing official recognition. She was appointed a CBE in 1937. The following year, the governor general, Lord Galway, officially opened Turongo, the striking carved house that Te Puea had built for King Koroki at Turangawaewae; it was named for the ancestor who had married Mahinarangi. Because of the improvement in Kingitanga relations with the government, Te Puea was willing to contemplate Waikato's joining the Waitangi centennial celebrations in 1940. Some years before she had set out to restore the skill of canoe building. Ranui Maupakanga supervised the refitting of the old canoe, Te Winika, by a team of younger carvers. Te Puea's vision of a fleet representing the traditional voyaging canoes came closer to fulfilment. In 1936 the government seemed willing to help a project that could also serve a purpose at the Waitangi centennial; but the funds were slow in coming, and eventually only one canoe, Nga-toki-mata-whao-rua, was completed in time. Tainui ultimately stayed away from Waitangi in 1940. Te Puea was affronted by the government's refusal to exempt Koroki from the necessity to register under the Social Security Act of 1938, seeing this as evidence of its continuing failure to recognise his mana. But she was also angered by the fate of an action brought by Hoani Te Heuheu Tukino, of Ngati Tuwharetoa, against the Aotea District Maori Land Board to prevent Maori land being charged for the payment of debts. Late in 1938 the case went to the Court of Appeal, which would not countenance Ngati Tuwharetoa attempts to rely on the Treaty of Waitangi because it was not part of domestic law. The Tainui boycott of the Waitangi celebrations made the headlines, and Te Puea was reported to have quoted with approval the saying of an elder: 'This is an occasion for rejoicing on the part of the pakehas and those tribes who have not suffered any injustices during the past 100 years.'

Te Puea had been raised with a 'bitter, poignant memory' of the 1860s war and confiscations. As a child she had heard stories first hand from those who had suffered in the fighting. But she was very anxious for a settlement so that the people could begin to put the pain of the past behind them. In 1946 she decided to accept Prime Minister Peter Fraser's offer of £5,000 per year in perpetuity, to be administered by the Tainui Maori Trust Board, not because it was an adequate settlement of the people's losses, but because she was immensely practical, and knew it was the best deal she could get at the time. Above all, it was a vindication. Till we meet again - Regards -edmondsallan