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Tāraia Ngākuti, sometimes also known as Te Tumuhuia, was born in the late eighteenth century. He was the son of Te Kaharunga and of Rewa, daughter of Te Rangitūmamao. His mana derived from his descent from Hineipu,…

Te Ngahuru was born at Te Purenga, in Rūātoki, the elder of the two sons of Pāhiko (his father) and Kau (his mother). He inherited the fighting characteristics of his ancestors, Haokitahā, Tūwhenuakura, Rōmaiwharerākau…

Mereana Tōpia, better known as Maria, and her daughter Hēni Hoana or Jane Tōpia, were outstanding leaders in their local communities. Among their many activities they fostered the practice of traditional Māori arts and…

Philippe Viard was born in Lyons, France, on 11 October 1809, the eighth child of Claude Viard, a metal founder, and his wife, Pierrette Charlotte Rolland. He probably took Joseph as a religious name at confirmation. In…

William Pember Reeves was born at Lyttelton on 10 February 1857, three weeks after his parents arrived in New Zealand. He was later to say that, although he was born a New Zealander, he only just managed it. His parents…

James Busby was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 7 February 1802, the second son of Sarah Kennedy and her husband, John Busby, a mineral surveyor and civil engineer. James Busby studied viticulture in France before…

Work and relationships Barry Crump was one of New Zealand’s most popular writers. In total, his novels sold more than a million copies domestically, equating to one book sold for every four New Zealanders. He was also…

Joseph William Allan Heenan, one of New Zealand's most able and imaginative public servants, was born on 17 January 1888 at Greymouth, the son of a bootmaker, William Joseph Heenan, and his wife, Mary Poynton, a…

Ngātuere was born at Te Pāparu, a Wairarapa pā near Te Ahikōuka, in the vicinity of the Waiōhine River. His father was Tāwhirimātea and his grandfather Te Ātāhuna, both leaders of Ngāti Kahukura-awhitia, one of the most…

Te Kaeaea was a chief of Ngāti Tama of northern Taranaki. He was born in the later eighteenth century; his father was Whangataki II and his mother, Hinewairoro; Te Pūoho-o-te-rangi was his brother. They were also…

Whāea (mother) Betty Wark worked with ‘at risk’ Māori youth in Auckland for more than 30 years. The product of a difficult childhood, she struggled to provide a family environment to many young people whose lives had…

Joan Wiffen was a self-taught palaeontologist who greatly advanced knowledge of fossil reptiles in New Zealand. Wiffen, who described herself as ‘a rank amateur, a Hawkes Bay housewife in fact, with no scientific…

Tony Druce was New Zealand’s pre-eminent twentieth-century field botanist. Over his lifetime he built up an extensive knowledge of New Zealand’s flora, through his many tramping trips, close observation of plants and…

Don Merton’s pioneering conservation efforts brought three threatened New Zealand bird species back from the brink of extinction and inspired similar conservation programmes around the world. From the early 1960s ‘the…

Īnia Mōrehu Tauhia Wātene Iarahi Waihurihia Te Wīata (originally Te Iwiata) was born in Ōtaki on 10 June 1915 to Wātene Te Wīata and his wife, Constance Helena Johnson, also known as Kone (Connie) Papi Nīkora. His…

Heinrich Arnold Nordmeyer, later known as Arnold Henry Nordmeyer, was born at Dunedin on 7 February 1901, the son of Arnold Nordmeyer, a German seaman who worked on a gold dredge at Alexandra, and his wife, Martha Dunn…

From the late 1950s through to the first decade of the twenty-first century, Peter Beaven was one of the most prominent figures in New Zealand architecture, both as the designer of instantly recognisable buildings and…

Mahuta Tāwhiao of Ngāti Mahuta was born at Whatiwhatihoe, Waikato, probably in 1854 or 1855. He was the eldest son of Tāwhiao, the second Māori King, and his senior wife, Hera. She was the daughter of Tāmati Ngāpora (…

M. K. Joseph was a novelist, poet, and literary academic of the 1940s–1970s, best known for the powerful short novel, A soldier’s tale. Outwardly conservative, with a professorship, scholarly publications, a stable…

Te Rangihiwinui, also known as Taitoko and later as Te Keepa, or Major Kemp, is thought to have been born in the first half of the 1820s at Tūwhakatupua, on the Manawatū River, near Ōpiki. His mother was Rere-ō-maki,…