Commemorating Women’s History Month with Maggie Papakura

Guide Maggie Papakura, Photographer Hemus & Hanna

At the conclusion of Women’s History Month we celebrate another iconic, indigenous female from New Zealand, Margaret Pattison Thom. Thom, who was later widely known as Mākereti (or Maggie) Papakura, was born on October 20, 1873. She would later become one of the most famous faces of New Zealand Tourism at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

She welcomed famous faces such as the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall in 1901 and became a highly sought-after tour guide in New Zealand. She would also go on to lead cultural groups that toured Australia and the United Kingdom.

In 1926, Maggie Papakura enrolled as a student of Anthropology at the University of Oxford, a lifetime of notes, journals and diaries were collated to write her thesis. On April 16, 1930 just two weeks before her final thesis was due, she died suddenly at Oxford. Her thesis was published posthumously and is the first extensive published ethnographic work by a Māori scholar.