Kiti Karaka Rīwai (12 September 1870 – 21 January 1927) (also known as Kiti Karaka, Catherine Clark, Kate Clark, Kitty Clark, Kiti Karaka Te Ao Ahitana, or Kiti Ashton) was a New Zealand tribal leader. She was born in

Ruapuke Island Ruapuke Island is one of the southernmost islands in New Zealand's main chain of islands. It is located to the southeast of Bluff and northeast of Oban on Stewart Island. It was named "Bench Island" upon its discovery by Captain James Cook i ...

, Southland, New Zealand in 1870, to parents Arapetere Karaka (Albert Clark) and Mary (née Owen). Of

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 Co ...

and

Moriori The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands ( in Moriori language, Moriori; in Māori language, Māori). Moriori are Polynesians who came from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 AD, which was close to the time of the ...

descent, she identified with the

Kāti Māmoe Kāti Māmoe (also spelled Ngāti Māmoe) is a Māori iwi. Originally from the Heretaunga Plains of New Zealand's Hawke's Bay, they moved in the 16th century to the South Island which at the time was already occupied by the Waitaha. A centu ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

. Her first husband was Riwai Te Ropiha, a Moriori of the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approxima ...

, with whom she had nine children before divorcing in the early 1900s. Her second husband was Te Ao Ahitana Matenga (Joseph Ashton) of

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi (tribe) located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The Kahungunu iwi also comprises 86 hapū (sub-tribes ...

, with whom she had one child, Joey Ashton. She helped build the meeting house in Wairua in the 1890s. She died in Greytown in 1927.

References

1870 births 1927 deaths Kāti Māmoe people Moriori people People from Ruapuke Island 19th-century New Zealand women 20th-century New Zealand women {{Māori-bio-stub