Submitted by admin on April 22, 2009 - 23:26
KOHERE, MOKENA, M.L.C.
(1812–94).
Maori leader.
A new biography of Kohere, Mokena appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.
Mokena Kohere was descended from a line of fighting chiefs of the Ngati Hokopu hapu of Ngati Porou. His father, Pakura, was killed in one of the battles between Ngati Porou and Whanau-a-Apanui. Although old enough to fight in this intertribal war, Kohere is not heard of until after the death of his elder brother, Kakatarau. He is mentioned as a leading wheatgrower and owner of one of the east coast schooners trading to Auckland. Kohere opposed both the “King” movement and the Hauhaus. He was prominent in the defeat of the Hauhaus at Kairomiromi, and, later, at Hungahungatoroa he averted a battle which would have cost the lives of many Ngati Porou converts to Hauhauism. He eventually won most of these back to the loyalist side and prevented the confiscation of Ngati Porou lands by the Government.
In 1872 Kohere was appointed to the Legislative Council, where he sat until 1887. He died on 4 March 1894 and is buried at Rangitukia.
by John March Booth, M.A., DIP.ANTHR.(LOND.), Secretary, New Zealand Maori Council, and the Polynesian Society, Wellington.
- The Story of a Maori Chief, Kohere, R. T. (1949).