Story: Adoption

Mākereti Papakura (left, with her father and half-siblings) was born to a Māori mother and Pākehā father in Matatā in 1873. She was cared for by her mother's aunt and uncle until she was 10, when her father assumed control of her education. Māori children were often raised by relatives who were not their parents, a practice called whāngai. After leaving school Mākereti moved to her ancestral home at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua and guided tourists around the thermal attractions, which brought her national and international fame. She took Māori concert parties to Australia and to England, where she settled after her marriage to an Englishman in 1912.