Kuia’s memoir a valuable social history

The editor of a Ngati Awa kuia’s memoir is keen for the book to reach a wider audience.

Maumahara, The Memories of Te Onehou Phillis, has been given a limited print run for whanau.

But Tania Rangiheua says her 86-year old aunt has a story that will interest a wider group of people.

The daughter of Ngati Awa rangatira Eru Manuera, Mrs Phillis has been a prolific writer of tribal history, a founder of the iwi’s newspaper, and was for a long time a teacher of Maori at Edgecumbe College.

“When I first read the manuscript she said ‘this is only for my mokopuna so they can know how I was brought up.’ I looked at the material and it was just too important as a social history and as a tribal record and a whanau record not to publish it and not to make it more available for others to read,” Ms Rangiheuea says.

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