Britson (Buddy) Piritihana Mikaere

Ngāti Pukenga, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Arawa, Ngāi Tūhoe

1951 -

Britson Mikaere was born in Coromandel and was educated at Mt Maunganui College from He has worked as a personnel manager and as director of the Waitangi Tribunal. His main area of writing is non-fiction articles on New Zealand history. Mikaere lives in Auckland.

Biographical sources

  • Correspondence from Buddy Mikaere on Oct. 1992, 17 Apr. 1998.

    Non-fiction

  • "Hipa Te Maiharoa - A South Island Response To The Loss Of The Land." Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 1.3 (Nov 1985): 21-25.
  • This is a shortened version of Mikaere’s talk to the Canterbury Māori Studies Association in 1985. Mikaere describes the life of nineteenth century Kai Tahu leader Hipa Te Maiharoa, discusses his conversion to the doctrines of Kai-ngarara, and his resolve to bring attention to Kai Tahu land grievances.
  • "Maungahuka: the nearest [M]aori settlement to the south pole. Part 1." Tu Tangata 31 (Aug./Sept. 1986): 24.
  • Mikaere writes of the migration of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, hapu of Te Atiawa, to Wharekauri (the Chatham Islands) in 1835 and the subsequent Ngāti Mutunga colonisation of the Auckland Islands in 1842. The bleak sub-antarctic climate proved a harsh environment and when English colonists arrived at the islands on the Samuel Enderby in 1849 conditions were briefly improved until 1852 when the English colonists were drawn to the Australian goldfields. In 1856 the Ngāti Mutunga were finally rescued from the Auckland Islands by their iwi in Wharekauri and returned to Wharekauri.
  • "The Death Of Moki: The Peninsula Māori." Tu Tangata 31 (Aug./Sept. 1986): 60-61.
  • Mikaere writes of the fighting between Wairarapa chief Tu-ahu-riri and Hika-oro-roa, and of Tu-te-kawa and Turuki in which Tu-ahu-riri’s life was spared but his two wives were killed. Fearful of the consequences of killing such high-ranking women, Tu-te-kawa fled to the South Island and settled at Waikakahi, near Waihora, Lake Ellesmere, and some time later Tu-ahu-riri’s son Moki travelled to Waikakahi to avenge the killing of his mother and the shaming of his father. After Tu-te-kawa was killed peace was established between Moki and Tu-te-kawa’s son Te Rakitamau, with Moki claiming land all over Banks Peninsula. When Moki offended two women he was cursed by two tohunga and he and his father, brother and half brother all died shortly afterwards.
  • "Maungahuka: The Nearest Māori Settlement To The South Pole - Part II." Tu Tangata 32 (Oct./Nov. 1986): 60-61.
  • In this second part of Mikaere’s discussion of the Māori who settled for a short time at Maungahuka, the Auckland Islands, Mikaere writes of the visit of Ngāti Mutunga chief, Matioro, to the Chatham Islands in 1833 with a sealing party. Two years later Matioro returned to the Chathams with the heke of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, subdued the resident Moriori and in 1842 Matioro sailed to Maungahuka where he settled until 1852. During this time English settlers, including Governor George Grey came to Maungahuka but their settlement was eventually abandoned and Matioro and another chief Ngatere each wrote a letter to Governor Grey asking that the Māori residents on Maungahuka be assisted in returning to New Zealand. Mikaere includes the English translation of the two letters translated by Lyndsay Head and Margaret Orbell and the song which accompanied the letters.
  • "A Māori Perspective on Archival Work." Archifacts: Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand 1 (Mar. 1987): 9-10.
  • In this summary of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canterbury/Westland Branch of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand in April 1986, Mikaere writes of the 19th century material by Māori stored in archives and states that archivists will need a ‘sound grounding’ in classical written Māori and its developments to appropriately service these collections and that they should draw upon the appropriate experts to translate the material. Mikaere argues against the notion suggesting the oral method ‘is still the correct method for preserving Māori history’ and asserts that Māori want the ‘same standard of empirical proof’ for their history as demanded for the Western society’s history.
  • "Horse-racing on the Chatham Islands." Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 2.4 (Feb. 1987): 25-28.
  • Mikaere writes an account of the origins of horse-racing in the Chathams Islands. When the hapu of Te Atiawa, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama fought over land at the Chathams, Ngāti Mutunga leader, Heikai Pomare, managed to sell Ngāti Tama land and bought horses from Sydney with the proceeds of the land sales. Irishman Thomas Ritchie arrived on the Chathams in 1864 and organised the first race meeting, and in the 1870s the Chatham Islands Jockey Club was founded. Included in this article is the Māori text and English translation by Lyndsay Head of a letter by Wiremu Naera Pōmare to Thomas Ritchie asking him to send a good horse over to Taranaki.
  • "God’s Leaf: Wiremu Te Kooti Te Rato/Te Rau a Te Ariki: Wiremu Te Kooti Te Rato." Written in English with Māori trans. by students of the 1986 Māori 210 Class at the U of Canterbury. Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 3.2 (Aug. 1987): 5-11.
  • A biography of Wiremu Te Kooti Te Rato of Ngāti Kahungunu who converted to Christianity through the Wesleyan mission at Porirua, trained for three years at Three Kings Wesleyan College and graduated as a native Assistant Missionary. From 1859-1864 Te Rato ministered in Wharekauri, the Chatham Islands, where he built up a following of three hundred believers and in 1865 was appointed by the Wesleyan Conference in Sydney to minister to Māori Wesleyans in the southern half of the South Island, a position he held until his retirement in 1891.
  • "The Māoris at Okains Bay." Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association. 3.4 (Feb. 1988): 5-9.
  • Mikaere writes of the Māori history of Okains Bay which was named Poa-i-iha by Kai Tahu chief Moki. Moki, according to oral history accounts, sailed to the Peninsula three hundred years ago on the Te Makawhiu canoe and with Mahi-aotea defeated the local Kati Mamoe and began to occupy the Peninsula. Mikaere describes the Kai Tahu settlements around Poa-i-iha, writes of tribal infighting and the South Island raids of Te Rauparaha.
  • "James Robinson Clough: ‘The Tonguer.’" Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 4.2 ( Aug. 1988): 5-12.
  • A biographical account of James Robinson Clough who arrived in Akaroa from England in 1837, worked as a whaler and married Puai the daughter of Iwikau, leader of the Katirakimoa hapu of Kai Tahu.
  • "Was 19th Century Māori Society Literate?" Lyndsay Head and Buddy Mikaere. Archifacts: Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand 2 (June 1988): 17-20.
  • Head and Mikaere discuss various views on the literacy of 19th century Māori and critique assertions made by D. F. McKenzie in his book Oral culture, literacy and print in early New Zealand: the Treaty of Waitangi. Head and Mikaere conclude that ‘far from the Treaty, or the 1840s, being proof that Māori rejected literacy, we ought to look at the period as its very beginning. Over the next fifty years the great age of Māori writing blossomed.’ This paper was presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand held in Christchurch, N.Z. from 28-29 August 1987.
  • Te Maiharoa and the Promised Land. Auckland, N.Z.: Heinemann, 1988.
  • In this publication of nineteen chapters, Mikaere writes a biography of the 19th century religious leader Te Maiharoa. Mikaere provides a context to the early 19th century Kai Tahu wars, land sale injustices, and other circumstances in Te Waiateruati leading up to the birth of Hipa Te Maiharoa, son of Te Rehe and Kokiro The visit in 1866 of Piripi, priest of Kaingarara, a Taranaki cult started in the 1850s by Tamati Te Ito, made a big impact on Te Maiharoa and Piripi appointed him ‘to tend the fire at Arowhenua.’ Like the tohunga of old, Te Maiharoa set about combating evil powers in Canterbury and Northern Otago, performing miracles and teaching righteous living. Mikaere writes a detailed account of Te Maiharoa’s fight against land sale abuses, the migration of Te Maiharoa and his followers to land called Te Ao Marama, the World of Light, at Omarama, and the subsequent move to Te Korotuaheka accompanied by Ihaia Tainui, a parliamentary representative for Southern Māori.
  • Editorial. Te Karanga 4.4 (Feb. 1989): 2-3.
  • Mikaere discusses adaptations of Māori society after European contact in relation to Jastrow Bronowski’s assertions in The Ascent of Man, and discusses the interface between Māori knowledge and the European methods of recording and preserving knowledge and culture.
  • "Te Muru - The Last Convert." Te Karanga 4.4 (Feb. 1989): 8-10.
  • Mikaere writes a biographical account of Kai Tahu tohunga, Te Muru, who was a member of the Kai Tutehuarewa and Kai Tuahuriri hapu and who lived at Koukourarata (Port Levy) for much of his life and later moved to Kaiapoi. Mikaere observes that Te Muru lived in an era of transition when the traditional religious beliefs of the Māori were being superseded by Christianity. After initially resisting Christianity Te Muru chose to be baptised on Easter Sunday, 1873 at his home near Tuahiwi and was later confirmed by Bishop Harper.
  • Editorial. Te Karanga 5.1 (May 1989): 2.
  • Mikaere discusses the tangi in contemporary New Zealand society.
  • "The Shadow Carver: Gottfried Lindauer." Te Karanga 5.2 (Aug 1989): 19-20.
  • A short biographical account of Austrian artist Gottfried Lindauer and a discussion of his Māori portraits and the Māori response to his work.
  • "The Obsidian Island." New Zealand Geographic 3 (July-Sept. 1989): 18-39.
  • Written by Buddy Mikaere. Photographed by Nick Reid and Kim Westerskov.
  • "A Strong and Vital People." Salute to New Zealand. Auckland, N.Z.: Beckett Sterling and Weldon, 1989. 109-119.
  • Mikaere presents an account of Māori identity, history, and whakapapa drawing from his own childhood and tribal stories and legends.
  • "Māori Prisoners on Maria Island, Tasmania." Te Karanga 6.3 (Nov 1990): 3-9.
  • Mikaere provides a detailed account of the events surrounding the arrest and imprisonment of ten Māori who were charged with rebellion and fighting in the Hutt Valley in 1846. One of the men, Rangiatea, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a Wellington, N.Z. hospital on the grounds of insanity, Te Whareaitu was hanged at Paremata, and the remaining prisoners were sentenced to be ‘transported as felons for the term of their natural lives’ and were shipped to Tasmania and sent to Maria Island, near Hobart. After protestations by La Trobe their case was presented to the Colonial Secretary in London and the men were released back to New Zealand on 1 April, 1848. Mikaere writes a postscript in which he tells of a group of six Wanganui elders and a Department of Māori Affairs official who travelled to Tasmania in July 1988 to arrange the exhumation of the remains of Hohepa Te Umuroa, who died on Maria Island before the men were released.
  • "Tomorrow’s History." Archifacts: Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (Apr. 1990): 59-60.
  • Mikaere provides one of five responses to a request by Archifacts to ‘users and custodians of Māori manuscripts to give their views on the future use and management of these materials.’ He writes that Māori material pertaining to Māori history in New Zealand archival collections is an ‘under-utilised resource’. Mikaere notes that not only are many New Zealanders unacquainted with the existence of Māori material in archival collections, but are also restricted in accessing the material because of inadequate description and indexing, lack of translations, geographical distances between country’s archives, and a lack of national standards.
  • "Year of the Waka." New Zealand Geographic 5 (Jan.-Mar. 1990): 8-29.
  • Mikaere presents an account of the Kaupapa Waka project which owed its origins to the vision of Te Puea Herangi to ‘restore and build waka taua’ for the centennial of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1940. In the Kaupapa Waka project some 20 waka taua were built or refurbished for the 1990 Treaty of Waitangi commemorations held on February 6 1990. Mikaere gives an evocative description of their construction, the training of the crew, and the great impact the project had on intertribal relationships and the learning of traditional art forms. Included within this article are two smaller articles entitled "Te Waka Māori - the Māori Canoe" which looks at the history of the Māori waka, and "Building a Waka Taua".
  • "Fighting the Silence." New Zealand 1990: Official Souvenir Publication. Auckland, N.Z.: Dow, 1990. 13-14.
  • Mikaere writes his views of the 1990 commemorations of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and revisits the distant mythological past of Rangi and Papa, of Maui and the coming of the great canoes to Aotearoa. He concludes ‘[t]he history of the Treaty so far proves it can be anything we agree it is. But the Treaty cannot make a nation. To do that, we need to be children of our country’s past. If we learn to find our values here we could make the Treaty a foundation charter for a Pacific nation whose racial partnership would be something new in the world.’
  • Images of New Zealand. Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit, 1992. Also published in French, German, Spanish and Japanese.
  • Text: Buddy Mikaere. Photographs: Stephen Robinson
  • "Rawiri’s Medal." Mana: The Māori News Magazine for All New Zealanders 1 (Jan/Feb 1993): 92-93.
  • An article about Rawiri Puhiraki’s protracted struggle to receive the New Zealand war medal.
  • Extract from Te Maiharoa and the Promised Land, Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 46-54.
  • In this extract Mikaere writes of Te Maiharoa’s spiritual powers and mana in the South Island. He describes the incident in which the Omarama Māori were to be evicted from their land and the events which caused Te Maiharoa not to fight back with arms.
  • "Looking back to go forward: The Waitangi Tribunal 1990-1995." Papers presented by Buddy Mikaere and Jennie Harré Hindmarsh. The Treaty of Waitangi: Towards 2000: A Collection of Papers from the 1995 lecture series organised by the Centre for Continuing Education/Te Whare Pukenga, Victoria University of Wellington, N.Z./Te Whare Wananga o te Upoko o te Ika a Maui. Wellington, N.Z.: Centre for Continuing Education, Victoria U of Wellington, [1995].
  • Mikaere gives an overview of the workings of the Waitangi Tribunal, discusses the Wai 54: Te Roroa claim, and provides statistics concerning the claims disposition summary as of 24 May 1995. This paper was presented as part of the lecture series organised by Te Whare Pukenga, Te Whare Wananga o te Upoko o te Ika a Maui (24 May to 5 July 1995)

    • Other

  • Ka kaute ahau! He pukapuka mahi mo te tamariki. Wellington, N.Z.: Māori Education Foundation, 1986.
  • Na Piritihana Mikaere - te kōrero. Na Shaun Fahey - nga whakaahua.[Text Piritihana Mikaere. Illus. Shaun Fahey]

    • Reviews

  • Rev. of Na To Hoa Aroha/From Your Dear Friend: The Correspondence between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck 1925-50. Vol. 1, ed. by M. P. K. Sorrenson. Archifacts 1 (1987): 28-29. Rpt. in Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 4.1 (May 1988): 39.
  • Rev. of Tauiwi: Racism & Ethnicity in New Zealand, ed. by P. Spoonley et al. Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 3.1 (May 1987): 37-38.
  • Rev. of Tauiwi: Racism & Ethnicity in New Zealand, ed. by P. Spoonley et al. Archifacts: Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand 1 (Mar 1987): 28-29.
  • "Historical Images Tell The Story." Rev. of An Illustrated History of New Zealand 1820-1920, by Judith Binney, Judith Bassett and Erik Olssen. Dominion Sunday Times 3 June 1990: 13.
  • "Māori Perspective Needed." Rev. of The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand. Ed. Keith Sinclair. The Dominion 22 Sept. 1990: 7.
  • Rev. of In the shadow of War - New Zealand soldiers talk about World War One and Their Lives, by Nicholas Boyack and Jane Tolerton. Landfall 45 (1991): 122-124.
  • "Cover makes large boast." Rev. of Two Worlds: First Meetings between Māori and Europeans 1642-1772, by Anne Salmond. The Dominion Sunday Times Nov. 24 1991: 22.
  • Rev. of Te Wai Pounamu - The Greenstone Island: A History of the Southern Māori during the European Colonisation of New Zealand, by Harry C Evison. Landfall 188 [New Series 2.2] (Nov. 1994): 310-313.

    Other

  • Hill, Peter. "Launch of Te Maiharoa and The Promised Land." Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 4.2 ( Aug. 1988): 20-21.
  • Scott, Sue. "Director for reassessment of claims under tribunal." Evening Post 8 Dec. 1989: 18.

  • Reviews

    Images of New Zealand.
  • Absalom, Irene. "Pushing NZ’s Barrow in Unbalanced Views." Christchurch Star 23 May 1992: 12.
  • Te Maiharoa and the Promised Land
  • Anglem, Kelly. Race Gender Class 8 (1989): 91.
  • Dacker, Bill. "Inprint: Justice for All." Listener 27 Aug. 1988: 48.
  • Gifkins, Michael. "Reclaiming the Past." Listener 7 May 1988: 72.
  • Griffiths, G.J. "Omarama pilgrimage becomes symbol of modern protest." Otago Daily Times 24 May 1989: 24.
  • Melbourne, Syd. "Land of Broken Promises?" Landfall 43 (1989): 117-119.
  • Hill, Peter. "Launch of Te Maiharoa and the Promised land." Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association 4.2 (1988): 20-21.
  • Ramsden, Irihapeti. Archifacts: Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (Apr. 1990): 72-74.