Abstract
How did Eruera Pare Hongi—who had an impact on New Zealand’s pre-Treaty constitutional and literacy history—come to get his name? Eruera Pare is a transliteration of Edward Parry, a famous Arctic explorer, also known as Admiral Sir William Edward Parry. Why would a young Ngāi Tawake man from Waimate, in the north of New Zealand, take the name of an Arctic explorer?
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Notes
The wording of the letter of 5th October 1831 was Reverend William Yate’s; Eruera Pare, Yate’s Māori language scribe, was possibly the kai tuhituhi, see Waitangi Tribunal, WAI 1040, 2014, p. 257. Debate about the Māori (Ngāpuhi’s) impact on the wording of the letter is recorded in Waitangi Tribunal, WAI 1040, 2014, p. 113ff, where it is argued that important rangatira would not have signed a letter to the King into which they had no input.
Hongi’s parentage is uncertain. George Clarke does not name Hongi’s father as Te Koperu, but this fact can be inferred from Clarke’s report that Hongi’s father was “treacherously killed and eaten at the River Thames while [Hongi Hika] was in England, and his death was the reason of that expedition [Hongi Hika] took to the River Thames immediately after his return from England”. (Clarke to Pratt, July 21, 1824. Hocken Collections. Letters of George Clarke. PC-0054, pp. 20–23). On the other hand, Parkinson argues that Hongi’s father could have been Hare Hongi II, a son of Hongi Hika, which would make young Hongi a grandson of Hongi Hika (Parkinson, 2003, p. 207, n. 18) Parkinson also makes the argument that Hongi could have been a redeemed slave (2003, p. 208, n. 20).
Clarke in Kerikeri to Pratt in London, July 21, 1824. Hocken Collections. Letters of George Clarke.
A typed note, probably by Mr K. A. Webster, accompanying a copy of the Journals of William Yate in the National Library Wellington states that: “I have a distinct recollection of reading somewhere—but I forget where unfortunately—that they [have] a long and earnest conversation in Sydney, and also of the children’s astonishment at first meeting with the Māori chief who accompanied him”. Alexander Turnbull library, MS-2544, Microfilm number 453. At the end of the typed note is a handwritten sentence: “Notes from Sir Edward Parry. Jan 60”.
The names of the large Davis clan in New Zealand appear in the ‘Blain Biographical Directory of Anglican Clergy in the South Pacific ordained before 1932’. Accessed 10 June 2020 http://anglicanhistory.org/nz/blain_directory/directory.pdf
Church missionary quarterly papers, No LXXIII, Lady-Day, 1834. https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22487952 Accessed 10 June 2020.
See Note 4. The note accompanying a copy of the Journals of William Yate also states that: “In July 1833, Yate was to pay them [the Parrys] another visit at Port Stephens, just before his return to N.Z., but to their great disappointment is prevented at the last minute by the steamer being held up. He is again accompanied by the Maori (Hongi) who, on his baptism, had taken the name ‘Edward Parry’”.
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Jones, A. How Did Eruera Pare Hongi Get His Name?. NZ J Educ Stud 56, 201–207 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-021-00214-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-021-00214-3