Tene Waitere

Tene Waitere (1853–1931) was a notable New Zealand Māori carver. He identified with the Ngāti Tarāwhai and Te Arawa iwi. His mother was Ani Pape, the daughter of Te Rahui, a Ngāti Tarāwhai leader. As a young girl, she was captured by Ngāpuhi during an attack on Rotorua in 1823 and taken as a slave to Northland, where she was forced to marry a Waitere. Tene Waitere was born probably in 1853 or 1854 at Mangamuka. When Tene was a few years old an uncle brought him, his elder sister Mereana Waitere and their mother to Ruato, on Lake Rotoiti. He married Ruihi Te Ngahue of Tuhourangi and they had one child, a daughter Tuhipo. One of Tuhipo's children was Rangitiaria Dennan, better known as Guide Rangi. Eramiha Neke Kapua, another carver, was Waitere's nephew, son of his sister Mereana.