Hēni Te Kiri Karamū: Wahine Toa
Channel: Difficult Histories: The New Zealand Wars
Date: 2022-12-16

Hēni Te Kiri Karamū, also known as Jane Foley (Hēni Pore), was a famous wahine toa from the Te Arawa tribe. Born in 1840, she was a young mother with several children when the Waikato War began in 1863, taking up arms in support of the Kīngitanga. She also took part in the defence of Pukehinahina (Gate Pā) at Tauranga on 29 April 1864, famously risking her own life to take water to a gravely wounded British officer. Later in life she was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She died in 1933 and was buried at Rotorua Cemetery. In this latest video, Joanna Kidman and Vincent O’Malley visit the gravesite and reflect on her remarkable life.