Pineamine "Pine" Taiapa (1901–1972) was a notable

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 ...

wood carver, farmer, rehabilitation officer, writer and genealogist. He was one of the first students of the School of Māori Arts in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

under

Āpirana Ngata Sir Āpirana Turupa Ngata (3 July 1874 – 14 July 1950) was a prominent New Zealand statesman. He has often been described as the foremost Māori politician to have served in Parliament in the mid-20th century, and is also known for his work ...

. As a carver he was part of over ninety-nine wharenui (

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

meeting houses) around

Aotearoa ''Aotearoa'' () is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, with the name of the whole country being ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' ("North Island and South ...

New Zealand.

Biography

Taiapa was born in

Tikitiki Tikitiki is a small town in Waiapu Valley on the north bank of the Waiapu River in the Gisborne Region of the North Island of New Zealand. The area in which the town resides was formerly known as ''Kahukura''. By road, Tikitiki is north-northeast ...

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

in 1901, to Tamati Taiapa and Maraea Iritawa Taiapa (née Potae). Of

descent, he identified with the

Ngati Porou ''Ngati'' is a 1987 New Zealand feature film directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and produced by John O'Shea. Production ''Ngati'' is of historical and cultural significance in New Zealand as it is the first feature film written an ...

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 ...

. His secondary school education was at Te Aute College in Hawkes Bay. His earliest carving teacher was master-carver Hone Ngatoto who invited him to work alongside him on the

War Memorial Church. The building of this memorial St Mary's church in Tikitiki was instigated by Ngāti Porou leader

in the early 1920s and is regarded as 'one of the most beautiful Māori churches in New Zealand'. Taiapa went on to be one of the first students under Āpirana Ngata at the School of Māori Arts in Rotorua in 1927 which became the

New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute The New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute (NZMACI) is an indigenous traditional art school located in Rotorua New Zealand. It operates the national schools of three major Māori art forms. NZMACI opened in 1963 as a successor school to ...

. Between 1947 and 1940 Taiapa worked on over sixty wharenui (meeting houses). Taiapa was then a soldier in World War II, part of the Māori Battalion. On his return he went back to carving and worked on a further thirty-nine wharenui.

Personal life and death

He married Mereaira Te Ruawai Taiapa, by whom he had a child. His younger brother Hone Taiapa was also a carver. He died in

on the 9th of February 1972, age 70.

References

1901 births 1972 deaths New Zealand farmers New Zealand Māori farmers New Zealand Māori carvers New Zealand genealogists Ngāti Porou people 20th-century New Zealand historians {{NewZealand-artist-stub