Maker’s name: Stitch and Butch for Sexual Abuse Help, Wellington
Petition sheet number: Unknown
Person honouring: Heni Te Kiri Karamu
Relationship to makers: None
Heni Te Kiri Karamu belonged to Ngāti Uenuku-kopako and Ngāti Hinepare of Te Arawa. She was descended from Ngatoro-i-rangi of Te Arawa canoe.
She was probably born in November 1840 at Kaitaia, where her mother Maraea had been taken as a child by Ngāpuhi after the capture of Mokoia Island.
After attending two mission schools in Auckland, Heni taught and worked as a governess before heading north with her parents. She married Te Kiri Karamu, a gumdigger, before settling in Katikati and having three sons and two daughters. She left her husband in 1861.
Heni Te Kiri Karamu is remembered in written history primarily for her involvement in the battle at Pukehinahina, or Gate Pā, on 29 April 1864. The women who had helped construct the fortification at Pukehinahina had been ordered to leave by Rawiri Puhirake before the British force attacked. Heni stayed, as she was recognised as a woman warrior. When the British troops were repelled, their wounded, left behind in the pā, were treated with kindness and humanity by the defenders.
In 1865-66, Heni fought in support of the government against the Pai Mārire movement and with Te Arawa forces led by Major William Mair against the Hauhau.
After the wars, Heni Te Kiri Karamu married Denis Stephen Foley, who kept a hotel and was in charge of the military canteen at Maketu. They had three daughters and three sons before Stephen was committed to Auckland’s asylum for attacking Heni.
In her later years Heni worked as a licensed interpreter, and was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, becoming secretary of the Māori mission and of the Rotorua Union.
Heni was also known as Heni Pore, or Jane Russell/Foley. She lived to see five generations of her descendants born, and died in June 1933. She was buried at the Rotorua cemetery.
Panel materials: Cotton sheeting, dye, cotton thread.
Unique ID number: VRS.2019.439