Whakapapa

Family History

The photo, on the front page, is taken from a place known as The Bluff (Pakarikari) on the Chatham Islands (Wharekauri) looking across Petre bay to the township of Waitangi. This is the place where Tuta Tutere and Pare Hough lived. The Tuuta Urupa is also here. Te Oti Kerei (Tutere) succeeded to this land on behalf of himself and his full brother Tuta Tutere on the 9th February 1885 from his mother Arapera Mohi Te Ranginui. Wi Naera Pomare substantiated Te Oti’s claim.

After the death of Te Oti Kerei, Tuta Tutere succeeded to this property. On the 22nd March 1930 Toko George Tuuta and his brothers John and Mitchell Tuuta went to the Maori Land court to partition 10 acres of land to be deviated if necessary at the surveyors discretion to include the House and Urupa.

This 10 acre block known as The Bluff (Pakarikari) was to be shared equally between Tuta Tutere and Pare Houghs siblings. The Whanau of Toko George Tuuta assumed that Pakarikari was a reservation, however when George Fraer Tuuta purchased Marcella D Tuuta’s shares, the whanau realized that Pakarikari was in fact not a reservation.

In 1991 Ngawhata Page applied to the Maori Land Court to register The Bluff (Pakarikari) as a Whanau Reservation. Their was one objection so nothing has been sorted to date.