Kōrero: Whaling

Māori were involved in the whaling industry as crew on whaling ships, workers at shore-based stations, and through the marriage of whalers to Māori women. This tinted lithograph (1847) by George French Angas is of George Toms (spelt Thoms in the lithograph), the son of Pākehā whaler Joseph Toms and Te Ua Torikiriki, the niece of Te Rauparaha. A whaling boat, possibly from his father’s whaling station at Porirua Harbour, is in the background.