Pāora Tūhaere was paramount chief of Auckland iwi Ngāti Whātua and well known as a peacemaker and intermediary between Māori and the government.¹ Tūhaere became paramount chief in 1868; he was based in Ōrākei, on the shores of Ōkahu Bay. He was the nephew of esteemed rangatira Āpihai Te Kawau.² His mother was Te Kawau’s sister, Ātareta Tuha, and his father was Whanararei of the Te Taoū hapū. He married twice, first to Tūpanapana, granddaughter of Ngāpuhi leader Te Wharerahi, and later to Harata Rewiri Tarapata, with whom he had a daughter, Mere.

Tūhaere was a Christian lay preacher, often speaking at intertribal gatherings and keen to promote peace. As an example of his ethos, he is quoted as having said to a group of Dalmatians arriving in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, ‘The laws of England shield us from the hand of the aggressor, we live happy and at peace, and rejoice to welcome those who, like you, come to us on a mission of goodwill!’³

In the 1840s and 1850s, Tūhaere was involved in facilitating land sales for the settlement of Tāmaki Makaurau. After this time, however, Ngāti Whātua supported the Kīngitanga movement’s call for a ban on further sales of Māori land. Concerns over land were inflamed by the government’s apparent unwillingness to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, an issue that Tūhaere would face throughout his leadership.

In the 1870s, Tūhaere was a leading member of the Te Kotahitanga, the Māori parliament,, which sought Māori control of Māori affairs.⁴ He also wrote on Ngāti Whātua history, genealogy and conflicts with other iwi.⁵

Pāora Tūhaere commissioned this portrait himself from Lindauer while visiting Thames in 1878; it hung briefly in the window of the Foy Brothers photographic studio.⁶ That Tūhaere chose to be depicted in impeccable European attire demonstrates an understanding of European portrait conventions, revealing a leader who skilfully navigated across Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Pākehā throughout his life.⁷ This work is not the only portrait of Pāora Tūhaere by Lindauer in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Henry Partridge commissioned a posthumous portrait, painted in 1895, in which Tūhaere is depicted wearing a piupiu as a cloak rather than the European clothing seen here.