A tangi at Kopekehinga, Wairarapa. E Koro, the chief of Kaikokerri meeting some of the Huangaroa natives

Details

Accession Number11,470CreatorBrees, Samuel Charles, 1810-1865Dateca. 1843

Description

Media & Sizewatercolour & opaque white on paper: 299 x 228mmDescription"Having trained as an architect and then as a civil engineer in Bristol, Brees (1809/10--65) designed the London to Birmingham railway line, and published three technical monographs on railway construction. His three-year appointment as principal surveyor with the New Zealand Company brought him to Wellington in 1842. Journeying to Upper Hutt and over the Rimutaka range the following year with his Maori guide, Te Kaeaea, he estimated the cost of building a road at £300. He painted this tangi while preparing plans for subdivision of southern Wairarapa.

During the 1840s, European diseases caused the deaths of many Maori in the Wairarapa as elsewhere. Pressure for land was increasing, and Te Korou, a Christian convert, and a Rangitane and Ngati Kahungunu leader from Kaikokirikiri near present day Masterton, travelled around the Wairarapa encouraging Maori to facilitate European settlement. Set at Huangarua near Martinborough, Brees’s scene shows the chief in front of a whare in a clearing, addressing those gathered for a tangi.

Brees published his Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand on his return to England in 1847. Its engraved illustrations of North Island scenes had an introduction which described the process of ‘redemption and occupation of wasteland’ through colonisation."
ProvenanceAllocation from Hocken Memorial Revenue

Depicts or Relates to

NamesBrees, Samuel Charles, 1810-1865McCahon, Colin John, 1919-1987PlacesKopekehinga, WairarapaSubjectsFox, Sir William, 1812-93 -- PortraitsRites and Ceremonies, MaoriWairarapa Valley (Wellington Land District, N.Z.)Chetham, Edward -- Portraits

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A tangi at Kopekehinga, Wairarapa. E Koro, the chief of Kaikokerri meeting some of the Huangaroa natives

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A tangi at Kopekehinga, Wairarapa. E Koro, the chief of Kaikokerri meeting some of the Huangaroa natives