Ana Reupene Whetuki, also known as Heeni Hirini and Heeni Phillips, belonged to the Ngāti Maru iwi, based in the fertile Hauraki region of Te Ika-a-Māui the North Island. During the 1850s the tribe’s small kainga (settlement) provided large supplies of food to the new capital of Auckland. When gold was discovered near Thames, however, European miners flooded in, rapidly establishing a town of 40,000 people. Mining, and later logging and pastoral farming, led to the destruction of traditional Māori food sources. This portrait is one of many Gottfried Lindauer painted of Reupene and her pēpi (baby), all based on a studio photograph taken by the Foy Brothers of Thames. Her son, carried close on her back in keeping with Māori custom, is remembered within Ngāti Maru for his skill in reciting whakapapa (ancestral connections). He is believed to have died in his late teens.

Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, 10 June – 22 October 2023