Mr Henry Kuka was a highly respected Te Puna resident. His mother
was Mrs Annie Kuka, a long-time Matakana resident who died in 1942 at the age of
102.
She had a long and fascinating life, and was born in Hobart in
1840. She recorded how this came about. Her mother was the daughter of
the Ngati-Tauaiti branch of the Ngaiterangi tribe on Matakana and she married
Captain Johnston. He was the owner of an early trading cutter which regularly
visited Matakana to load kumeras. The couple lived for a short time in Tauranga
then Captain Johnston was appointed harbour master in Tasmania and the
couple moved to live there. Mrs Kuka and her sister were born at Hobart
Town and were not very old when their father was drowned in a boating
accident off Brunei Island close to Hobart. The mother decided that she would
return with her children to Matakana.
Transport was extremely difficult to obtain and six months lapsed
before they were able to board a whaling boat bound for New Zealand. It was a
very rough trip and their ship put in at the Bay of Islands. From there, they
transhipped in a smaller vessel for Auckland and on arrival, the mother was
almost destitute. She found work as a housemaid in a hotel to support her
family while waiting for a passage to Tauranga,
One day, while scrubbing the bar floor with her sleeves rolled up,
a Maori customer noticed her tattooing and proclaimed her for what she was
- the daughter of a Rangatira from Matakana. He took charge of the family,
and was able to secure passage for them on a schooner bound for
Tauranga. They were welcomed back home with great rejoicing as the tribe
had no knowledge of them since her departure from Tauranga.
Annie was educated at the Mission House at Tauranga where she lived
for most of the time , until she was out of her teens. She went to Matakana
and married. She knew most of the officers and soldiers who later fought at Gate
Pa. Many of then regularly rowed over to Matakana to spend the weekends and
brought sweets and tit-bits for the children of whom they were very fond. She
related that it was a very sad day, when these same men, after the Battle of
Gate Pa, were forced under orders, to form a punitive expedition to the island,
to destroy the crops and burn the Maori whares. She always remembered the day of
that battle, when with many other Maoris, she stood on the cliffs of Rangiwaea
Isalnd and saw the flash of the guns as the Pa was attacked by the pakeha
soldiers. Many of their own menfolk were killed or wounded during this
fight.
Annie Kupa was affectionately known to all the island as "Granny'
and lived a long and useful life. She was buried in the Kuteroa Cemetery on
Matakana Island and a tombstone was erected in her memory.
Written by Mr Ross FaulknerGenerations of Kuka sons have represented Te Puna at sport
