Ihakara Porutu "Kara" Puketapu is a leader of the Te Āti Awa

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Waiwhetū Waiwhetū is an eastern suburb of Lower Hutt in the Wellington Region situated in the south of the North Island of New Zealand. In the 19th-century period of European settlement it was worked by Irish-born Alfred Ludlam, who was a member of thr ...

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. . Kara was born to Īhāia Pōrutu (Paddy) Puketapu of the Te Āti Awa

and

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

-born Vera May Yeates (1904 – 16 March 1991), a

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...

, who were both on their second marriages. Puketapu grew up in Taranaki and rose through the ranks of the Ministry of Maori Affairs (later named the ''Ministry of Māori Affairs'' and ultimately ''Te Puni Kōkiri'') to become Secretary of Maori Affairs. He is renowned for forging a new direction for the Department to empower Māori development in response to the difficulties being faced by Māori in the urban environment. Under his leadership, several Kōkiri units were established in the Wellington area. These units worked with local communities to devise programmes to support cultural and economic aspirations, thus reversing the normal 'top down' approach of government departments. It was at one of these Kōkiri units in Wainuiomata that the first kōhanga reo was established. Puketapu's philosophy is outlined in his book ''Reform from Within''. During his time as Secretary of Māori Affairs, Puketapu chaired the management committee of

Te Maori ''Te Maori'' (sometimes ''Te Māori'' in modern sources) was a watershed exhibition of Māori art in 1984 (later continued to 1985, 1986 and 1987). It is notable as the first occasion on which Māori art had been exhibited by Māori, and also th ...

, the first international exhibition of Māori objects as art. After a triumphant run at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, Saint Louis Art Museum and the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum,

toured New Zealand. Puketapu also rose in standing within his iwi, to become chairperson of the Te Āti Awa Runanga (tribal council). The Te Āti Awa Runanga run a primary health organisation in their

area and a radio station (Atiawa Toa FM). Recently they have clashed with local authorities over the custodianship of waka. Puketapu was top rugby player in his youth, and later became involved in coaching Rugby League. Puketapu became involved with the

Wainuiomata Lions The Wainuiomata Lions are a New Zealand rugby league club based in Wainuiomata, Wellington. They compete in the Wellington Rugby League competition. In the early 1990s, prior to the creation Lion Red Cup national league competition based on ...

both as a coach and serving as President.LOWER HUTT CITY (NAME OF CITY COUNCIL) BILL : Introduction
''New Zealand Parliamentary Debate'', 15 August 1990 During the

1995 Lion Red Cup The 1995 New Zealand rugby league season was the 88th season of rugby league that had been played in New Zealand. The main feature of the year was the second season of the Lion Red Cup competition that was run by the New Zealand Rugby League. The ...

Puketapu briefly served as the coach of the Hutt Valley Hawks. In 2008, Puketapu resigned from the ''Port Nicholson Block Treaty Settlement Trust'

chaired by Sir Ngatata Love over the compensation for Waiwhetū land confiscated by the Crown in the 1940s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puketapu, Ihakara Living people Te Āti Awa people New Zealand rugby league coaches New Zealand rugby league administrators New Zealand Māori public servants Year of birth missing (living people)