Missed Opportunity - Version Two (2)

I uploaded the above post in mid-January 2018 then made the decision to take the post down in February. Yes, we can change our minds and I am about to reinstate the core of that post, in italics, followed up with new material.

This was the Lord Pembroke Version which followed on from the first.

In Version One’s (1) I ‘…stated that my great-great-grandfather’s (GGGF) Frederick Maning’s arrival in the Hokianga and taking of a Maori woman as his wife. [Upon reading his book]  I have struggled to find is a personal description of my great-great-grandmother (GGGM) Moengaroa Maning.  I awoke this morning thinking, GGGF what a missed opportunity.

From a great-great-granddaughter’s perspective, it was a missed opportunity! When ‘Old New Zealand’ was published it had an international audience. This was an opportunity to raise the profile of Maori women of his time, not just the tasks they undertook or the support during internal wars.

Before he married my GGGM Moengaroa the literature indicates that as the sister of a Maori Chief she held status as a woman amongst her Hapu. Barbara Brookes, author of, The History of New Zealand Women highlights the benefits of male settlers, traders, whalers entering relationships with Maori women on arrival.

In the last 24 hours, my research did bear fruit . James Cowan (Journalist-Historian, 1870-1943) wrote a series of articles about Famous New Zealanders for The New Zealand Railway Magazine I got my first insight to GGGM Moengaroa. “… a handsome lass with a tattooed chin…” (Cowan, J, 1933, pg.26). What a find!

A friend, in New Zealand, sent me her book called Cannibal Jack, The Life & Times of Jacky Marmon, a Pakeha Maori by Trevor Bentley. Marmon, also Irish arrived in the Hokianga before GGGF. Depending on the material you read there are many interpretations of their relationship which lasted over 40 years.

However, what caught my eye amongst Bentley’s insightful historical piece was the following,

Marmon freely admitted to polygamous and monogamous marriages and Maning’s antipathy towards him may also have been motivated by guilt about his own marriage to Moengaroa, the sister of the Ngapuhi chief Hauraki, which he suppressed in Old New Zealand. (Bentley, T., 2010, Pg.18)

This validated to me that Moengaroa who I was searching for in GGGF pages of Old New Zealand did not Bear Fruit. Bentley uses the word suppressed?

Therefore, the catalyst for me to Be Brave, once again, was to have my thoughts validated.

Trusting one’s intuition was the lesson.

May the week bring you peace and harmony!

Viti