Group of Ngāti Hauā Māori, outside Te Wai O Turongo meeting house, near Matamata

Group of Ngāti Hauā Māori, outside Te Wai O Turongo meeting house, near Matamata. Hohua Ahowhenua is seated in the centre, with staff. Photograph taken by either Charles Hemus or John Robert Hanna, circa 1880s.

Note that 1/1-001887 (and its copy neg 1/2-041315) is very similar photograph belonging to the Schmidt Collection, therefore, if they are dated circa 1870s, they would have been taken by either John Robert Hanna or Charles Hemus.

This photograph is part of a sequence which includes a portrait of Hohua Ahowhenua which was commissioned by Josiah Clifton Firth. The original negatives for these images, which are now part of the Alexander Turnbull Library collections, are dry plates, which would indicate that they were taken after 1880, but before Firth's departure from his Matamata estate in July 1887. In "Nation making" (pp260-261), Firth states that after his own departure, Hohua was abandoned in the Runanga house by his people. This photograph would appear to have been taken before this. The negatives form part of the collection of Auckland photographer Herman Schmidt. Schmidt in 1904 took over the studio of Hemus & Hanna, who are therefore most likely to have taken the images.

Quantity: 1 b&w copy negative(s).