Nanaia Mahuta

Birth Name: Nanaia Cybele Mahuta

Place of Birth: Auckland, New Zealand

Date of Birth: 21 August, 1970

Ethnicity:
*father – Māori, one quarter Rarotongan Cook Islander, one eighth Irish, one eighth English
*mother – Māori, one quarter English

Nanaia Mahuta is a New Zealand politician. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Minister of Foreign Affairs, since 6 November, 2020, and Minister of Local Government, since 26 October 2017, and, previously, from 19 October, 2005 to 19 November, 2008. She has also been Minister for Māori Development, from 26 October, 2017 to 6 November, 2020, and a Member of the New Zealand Parliament, since 1999. She is the first female politician with a moko kauae (Māori chin tattoo). Nanaia is affiliated with the Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto, and Ngāti Manu.

Nanaia is the daughter of Sir Robert Te Kotahi Mahuta, also a New Zealand politician, and of Lady Raiha Eliza Edmonds. She is the adopted (whāngai) granddaughter of the 5th Māori King, and a cousin to the current Māori monarch. Her father Robert, born as Robert Jeremiah Ormsby, was adopted at a few weeks old by King Korokī Mahuta, the 5th Māori King, and his wife Te Atairangikaahu Hērangi. Robert’s biological parents were Robert Ormsby and Te Amohia Vaikai.

Nanaia briefly lived in Oxford, England, during her childhood, before moving back to Huntly in Waikato, New Zealand, where she grew up. She has had three children with her cousin William Ormsby. William is also a grandson of Robert Ormsby.

Nanaia is a second cousin, twice removed, of rugby union player and boxer Quade Cooper. Nanaia’s great-grandparents, John Tucker Edmonds and Raiha Arapera (Eliza) Pekama, were also Quade’s paternal great-great-great-grandparents.

Nanaia’s paternal grandfather was Jeremiah Robert (Robert) Ormsby (the son of Jeremiah Ormsby and Ngapaki Ariana Turner). Nanaia’s great-grandfather Jeremiah was the son of Robert Ormsby, who was from County Meath, Ireland, and of Rangihurihia (Mary Bianca) Te Raku, who was Māori, of Ngāti Maniapoto. Nanaia’s great-grandmother Ngapaki was the daughter of James Turner and Atiria Hamuera, of Ngāti Maniapoto. Nanaia’s great-great-grandfather James was the son of William Turner, who was English, and of Ripekatangi Poutukeka, a Māori woman, of Ngāti Maniapoto. Nanaia is a distant cousin of actor and musician Jordi Webber, through their Ormsby line.

Nanaia’s paternal grandmother was Te Amohia Te Nukanuka-o-te-Rangi Vaikai (the daughter of Kainuku Puretu Tamoko-O-Te-Rangi Ariki Vaikai and Piupiu Te Wherowhero). Kainuku was Rarotongan, from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and was the son of Kainuku Parapu Ariki Vaikai, a member of the Rarotongan Island Council, and of his wife Teputiki Tamarua, who were from Ngatangiia, Rarotonga. Nanaia’s great-grandmother Princess Piupiu was a leader within the Tainui royal family of Māori Kings. She was the daughter of Te Wherowhero Tāwhiao and Tamirangi Ahutiatia Manahi, and a granddaughter of King Tāwhiao.

Nanaia’s maternal grandfather was Alfred Hamlin (Aperere Hamorana) Edmonds (the son of John Tucker Edmonds and Raiha Arapera (Eliza) Pekama). John was a stone mason, and was the son of John Samuel Edmonds and Marianne Stickland, who had emigrated to New Zealand from Dorset, England, in 1834. Raiha was Māori, of Ngāti Manu, from Ngawha, Northland, New Zealand.

Nanaia’s maternal grandmother was named Maria/Marie Ada Tipa (the daughter of Hone Tipa and Wharepereki).

Sources: Genealogies of Nanaia Mahuta – https://www.familysearch.org
https://www.geni.com (incorrectly identifies Nanaia’s maternal grandmother. Ngere Wynyard was the name of Alfred Hamlin’s first wife. Ada’s surname listed at marriage is Tipa)

comrade

interested in whakapapa (on hiatus)

6 Responses

  1. comrade says:

    Nanaia is a cousin to Jordi Webber through Robert Ormsby, who was from County Meath, Ireland. It’s Ngāti Manu not Ngāti Manum.

  2. andrew says:

    @comrade

    Do you know something about Quade Cooper family?

    • comrade says:

      I can’t find anything on his dad but I know his mother Ruhia is Māori. Ruhia’s mother is Carole Jenner nee Menzies. Carole is the daughter of Robert Bruce Menzies (whose parents were Robert Menzies and Dorace Mae Huia Faulkner) and Audrey Beryl Fowler. Dorace was the daughter of Christopher Kiritoha Pomare Faulkner and Alice Shaw Capper, daughter of Samuel Capper and Mary Jane Smith from Tasmania.

      Audrey was the daughter of Francis Henry Fowler from Lancashire, England and Doris Amelia Yallop from Tottenham, England
      Robert’s parents were William Menzies and Elizabeth Purdie Park from Renfrewshire, Scotland

      Christopher’s parents were John Lees Faulkner from Whitby, Yorkshire, England, and Ruawahine Irihāpeti Tawaho Ngaitukairangi of Ngāi Te Rangi

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