Mākereti Papakura

Papakura was born in Matatā, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, in 1873.[1] Her parents were Englishman William Arthur Thom, a storekeeper, and Pia Ngarotū Te Rihi, a high-born Te Arawa woman of Ngāti Wāhiao hapu of Tūhourangi, descended from Te Arawa chiefs Tama-te-kapua, Ngātoroirangi, Hei and Ika.[1]

Papakura was raised until the age of 10 by her mother's aunt and uncle, Mārara Marotaua and Maihi Te Kakau Parāoa, at the small rural village of Parekārangi, where she spoke Māori and learnt her maternal family's history, culture and traditions. When she was 10, her father took over her education and she attended schools in Rotorua and Tauranga, then Hukarere Native School for Girls in Napier.[1]

In 1891, aged 18, she married Francis (Frank) Dennan, a surveyor, and had a son, William Francis (Te Aonui) Dennan, later that year. The family lived briefly in the Wairarapa, but Dennan left to work in Taupō and Papakura returned to Whakarewarewa. They divorced in 1900.[1]

After secondary school, Papakura moved to live in the thermal springs area of Whakarewarewa in Rotorua and began to learn to be a guide under Guide Sophia Hinerangi. With her wages she was able to support her infant son, William.[2] She was once asked by an overseas visitor if she had a Māori surname, and, glancing around for inspiration. she saw the geyser Papakura nearby and told the visitor her name was Maggie Papakura. From then on, she worked under the name and members of her family also adopted the new surname.[1]

In 1901, Papakura was the guide for the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) on their visit to Whakarewarewa. She was noticed by the press, and as a result, she was featured in magazines, calendars, brochures, books, postcards and newspaper society columns. Two years later she published her own guide book, Maggie's Guide to the Hot Lakes, which was a great success.[2]

Papakura was also a skilled entertainer and in the early 1900s established the Rotorua Maori Choir, which she took to Sydney on tour in 1910. The tour was so successful that a group of Sydney businesspeople asked her to organise a concert party to go to London for the Festival of Empire celebrations, and in April 1911 Papakura's group left for England. The group consisted of around 40 members of Papakura's family, including her sister Bella, brother Dick and Tūhourangi leader Mita Taupopoki.[1][2]

They group performed at Crystal Palace, the Palace Theatre and White City and were accompanied by an exhibition of Māori artefacts, including a meeting house and storehouse. The tour was highly successful in terms of positive publicity and attention, however it was beset by financial problems. About half the group decided to stay in England, and four of the women married Englishmen.[3] The remainder of the group returned to New Zealand in late 1911. Papakura was blamed both for the financial issues and for the group members who had not come back. She stayed in New Zealand only briefly and she then returned to England, where she continued a relationship with Richard Staples-Browne. She had first met him in 1907 when he had toured New Zealand. The couple were married in 1912 and they lived in Staples-Browne's country home in Oxfordshire, Oddington Grange.[1][2]

Margaret Staples-Browne's grave in Oddington

During World War I, Papakura and her husband opened their homes in Oxfordshire and London to injured New Zealand troops, and Papakura installed a memorial to fallen Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers in the chapel at Oddington.[2] In 1924, Papakura moved into Oxford and enrolled to study a Bachelor of Science degree in anthropology at the Society of Oxford Home-Students. She wrote a thesis on Māori culture, which she took to the elders at Whakarewarewa for approval before submitting it. Papakura died suddenly three weeks before her thesis examination, on 16 April 1930 aged 56, from a ruptured aortic artery.[1] She was buried, according to her wishes, in Oddington cemetery; her family in Whakarewarewa erected a memorial to her in the village the following year.[1]