Putere is a village and rural community located in the Wairoa District of the Hawke's Bay Region, on New Zealand's North Island. It is located based around the small Lake Rotoroa and Lake Rotonuiaha. [1]
Hawke's Bay Region is a region of New Zealand on the east coast of the North Island. It is governed by Hawke's Bay Regional Council, which sits in the city of Napier. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke.
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island's area is 113,729 square kilometres (43,911 sq mi), making it the world's 14th-largest island. It has a population of 3,749,200.
A European sheep farming station, Te Putere Grazing Run, was established in the area in 1875 or 1876. [2] The area was also farmed by the families of World War I soldiers, but conditions were severe and many families had abandoned their farms by the Great Depression. [3]
World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how intensely the world's economy can decline.
The area has two marae of the local Ngāti Kahungunu people:
A marae, malaʻe, meʻae, and malae is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term also means "cleared, free of weeds, trees, etc". Marae generally consist of an area of cleared land roughly rectangular, bordered with stones or wooden posts perhaps with paepae (terraces) which were traditionally used for ceremonial purposes; and in some cases, a central stone ahu or a'u. In the Rapa Nui culture of Easter Island, the term ahu has become a synonym for the whole marae complex.
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.
- Putere marae and meeting house is a meeting place of the Ngāti Pāhauwera and Ruapani hapū
- Te Maara a Ngata marae and meeting house is a meeting place of the Ngāti Pāhauwera hapū. [4] [5]
Ngāti Pāhauwera is a Māori iwi of Aotearoa.
Ruapani was a rangatira (chief) of the Māori in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa in the 15th and 16th century.
