Story: Smoking

Māori women smoking pipes

Māori women smoking pipes

Four women smoke pipes outside a meeting house in the King Country in 1885. Māori developed the habit of smoking tobacco in the early 19th century, through contact with the whaling community. From the 1840s reports of hui in meeting houses often comment on the smoky atmosphere. Māori women smoked as much as Māori men.

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Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Reference: C.010039
Photograph by Alfred Burton

Permission of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Smoking - The age of the pipe: the 19th century', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/38968/maori-women-smoking-pipes (accessed 26 April 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 5 Sep 2013