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Story: Whāngai – customary fostering and adoption

Tāmati Wāka Nene

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Tāmati Wāka Nene

This photograph of Tāmati Wāka Nene was taken around 1870 by Elizabeth Pulman. Nene was a renowned Ngāpuhi chief who mistakenly shot his relation dead for a crime he did not commit. Nene took on the man's son, Timoti, as an atawhai.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PA2-2721

by Elizabeth Pulman

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Basil Keane, Whāngai – customary fostering and adoption – Traditions and history, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/31033/tamati-waka-nene (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Basil Keane, published 10 May 2011, updated 1 June 2017.