c1870 Carte de Visite of the Māori leader Wikitoria Taitoko Kepa, Daughter of Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp)

Carte de Visite of the Māori leader Wikitoria Taitoko Kepa, Daughter of Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp)

-New Zealand, c. 1870.

-An uncommon early photographic CDV of Wikitoria Taitoko Kepa (c.1850–1912), also known as Wiki Kemp, in Western dress.

Wiki was the daughter and only surviving child of the Māori rangatira and military commander Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp). Following his death in 1898, Wiki became leader, and a prominent figure in Pūtiki and Whanganui. She maintained connections across both Māori and Pākehā society and was active in the Māori temperance movement. Her stature led to the commission by the sculptor Nelson Illingworth of portrait bust in 1908. Her death at Pūtiki in 1912 was followed by a substantial tangi (funeral) attended by Māori leaders from across the country.

Her family occupied an important position in nineteenth-century New Zealand history. Her grandmother Rere-ō-maki was among the Māori women who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840, while her father Te Keepa became one of the most celebrated Māori commanders of the New Zealand Wars. After his military career he increasingly devoted himself to resisting the sale of Māori land, establishing a land trust in an attempt to preserve Whanganui lands under Māori control. He is remembered for his warning: “If you sell your land, you will become slaves.”

£375