She had thick Lyle stockings and black pointed toe shoes with buttons to the side. Behind her hung a huge kiwi feather korowai and she was surrounded by all of her taonga pounamu.
She was taken to the bottom of our urupa Whenuakura at Pakipaki in Tongs' big black hearse and then carried by a body of men to her final resting place. Typically she wanted things done differently.
For her tangihana she had instructed that instead of accepting koha her children were to put £50 notes taken from her savings into split poplar sticks which were then placed on the marae for the people who needed financial support to take for their kai and travel costs.
Pukepuke Tangiora was our last whanau matriarch. As one of nine siblings I have the privilege and responsibility to be her sole surviving grandchild. She was a woman of great mana and this is manifest in the substantial estates that she has left her descendants.
I mentioned her taonga. Besides her own personal treasures and heirlooms such was her mana she was also the kaitiaki of ancient patu that had been given to her tipuna, the Whatuiapiti rangatira Te Hapuku.
The story goes that in the days leading up Te Hapuku's death other leading Kahungunu chiefs such as Tareha Te Moananui from Ngati Paarau at Waiohiki gathered at his bedside at Te Hauke to express their appreciation of his support at Omarunui on October 12 1866. Each rangatira presented Te Hapuku with a patu to signify their friendship even though they had previously faced each other in battle.
To my knowledge Pukepuke Tangiora was born in 1853 on an island in the Tukutuki River near Ngawhakatatara. Her father was a Scotsman and I believe she inherited his canniness in business and life in general.
She had a movie theatre at about where the Pakipaki roundabout is now. She became known as NZ's premier environmentalist and conservationist. She refused to sell her land estate, nor to allow the Crown to separate her from it in any way. She also bought non−Maori land adjacent to her estate in order to protect it− hence the size of her estate. She wanted it kept intact to benefit at least three generations after her.
The original will said that the estate could not be distributed until 20 years after the death of her last grandchild, who of course is me. Unfortunately Parliament changed this period and despite my best efforts to get the original will reinstated, after my death the estate must be distributed after only five years. This continues to cause me great concern and I urge the whanau to retain ownership.
My grandmother opposed the sale of her land to make a profit, when it could be kept intact and by that means gain interest from wise investment without the need to sell for lesser gain. Pukepuke Tangiora knew that one does not have to sell land to gain an income for its owners.
Pukepuke Tangiora was known to be practical and generous with her wealth. In the 1920s this was exemplified by her and my father Te Akonga Mohi 's generous support of the Ratana Wheat Farm which grew wheat with the aim of export − even before Ngata's Maori Land Schemes were begun.
She was also a practical farmer and forester herself. She appreciated the Ratana Trade Training Mechanical Workshops which was managed by Eruera Tirikatene.
Every family had a plot to grow their own vegetables as well. Everyone worked as committed Christian volunteers − and Pukepuke Tangiora provided the finance for the essential machinery and top−class seed from Massey University College, while Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana provided 1200 acres of his family land around Ratana Pa.
My grandmother was an educationalist and a political reformer. She was in the forefront in gaining the vote for NZ women, and was a member of Te Kotahitanga Maori Parliament. She was an active member of the Christian Temperance Union, but, amusingly her keen business sense was such that when a publican in Woodville owed her money and couldn't pay she took over his hotel!
I cherish my grandmother's memory and I hold fast to the faith in which she raised me. He kororia hareruia, kia Ihoa o nga mano, ko te Kahui Ariki Wairua, ko Te Mangai he tautoko mai. Ae. Na Hariata.
Hariata Baker, 86, is the last surviving grandchild of Pukepuke Tangiora and lives at Waipuka (Ocean Beach).
