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Biography: Horomona, Maata

Off to America

A group of Māori, dressed in European clothing, are seated on the deck of a ship. A woman in the front row holds a tewhatewha (long handled wooden weapon).

The Rotorua concert party, bound for New York on the SS Manapōuri in July 1909. Maata Horomona is seated at front left, tucked under a korowai with a fellow performer whom the New York press called Erana. The woman in the centre of the front row may be Waapi Tungi Yates, and the man next to her in the pinstriped suit is thought to be Mita Taupopoki.

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Reference: AWNS-19090715-12-02

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How to cite this page

Minette Hillyer. 'Horomona, Maata', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2024. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/47853/off-to-america (accessed 4 June 2026).