Te Onehou Eliza Phillis née Eruera

Te Onehou Phillis was born in Otamaoa, Te Teko and was educated at Te Teko Native School, Rangitahi Native School, Paroa Native School, Queen Victoria Māori Girls’ School and Whakatane District High School. She pursued further studies at Hamilton Teachers’ College and University of Waikato. She graduated with a Diploma of Teaching and completed B.A. papers in Māori language and oral literature. Between 1943-1951, Te Onehou worked as a typist-clerk for the Whakatane County Council, the Mt Maunganui Town Board and the New Zealand Dairy Company. She was a clerical assistant at Te Teko Primary School from 1962-1973 and in 1973 was a part-time teacher in the Māori Department of Edgecumbe College. From 1975-1988, she taught Māori and English at Edgecumbe College and was also Careers Adviser from From 1976-1978, she was Adult Education Māori Tutor for the Certificate in Māori Studies course at Wharewananga o Waikato. From 1980-1982, she was a tutor for the Certificate in Māori Studies course at Waiariki Community College. Te Onehou was a part-time tutor at the Apanui Education Centre at Whakatane in 1990 and at Te Teko Skills Centre from In 2001 she completed a Bachelor of Māori Studies at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi.

Te Onehou has been a member of many committees and organisations. She was the elected Warahoe Hapu delegate to the Runanga from 1989 until her retirement in 2000. She was a member of the first education committee and established the council for Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi. She was a foundation committee member of Te reo o te Manuka Tutahi. She was a committee member on Mana from 1991-995, and a Runanga delegation member to National Māori Congress. From 1991-96, Te Onehou was a member of Tohunga Ora o Ngāti Awa. She represented her iwi at the United Nations Year of Indigenous Peoples Conference in Geneva. In 1995 she became a foundation member of Te Kahui Kaumatua and in 1997 was a member of Ngāti Awa Research and Archives Trust, Kaumatua member of the Restructuring Working Party and a delegate on the Settlement Policy Committee. She became a member of the Ngāti Awa Whakapapa Committee in 1999.

Te Onehou has written a large number of non-fiction articles both in Māori and English for Pu Kaea. She was co-writer with Hirini Mead of Te One Matua: The Abundant Earth, The Centennial Booklet of Ruataupare at Kokohinau Marae. She has compiled the whanau reunion booklet Maata Reunion 1988 and the booklet Ruaihona for the opening of Ruaihona Wharenui in 1993. Te Onehou received an award at the Montana Book Awards for her biography of her father, Eruera Manuera, the last paramount chief of Ngāti Awa. She has attended a writers’ workshop “Te Hunga Taunaki Kaituhi Māori” at Whitianga Marae, Whanau-a-Apanui.

Biographical sources

• Correspondence with Te Onehou Phillis 9 Nov. and 20 Dec. 1995, 1998, 6 Aug. 2004, 14 and 23 June 2005.
• "Te Onehou Eliza Phillis (nee Eruera)." Te Runanga O Ngāti Awa, c.2000. 39.