Horatio Gordon Robley’s association with mokamokai (preserved heads of Māori bearing moko mataora) has defined how he has been seen for over a century — by Britons, Pākehā and Māori. Unsurprisingly, this association has seen him vilified by many.

Tim Walker has been studying Robley, also known as Te Ropere, since 1979, initially for a MA thesis. Robley’s many letters and watercolours held by the Alexander Turnbull Library have been at the centre of Walker’s work, as have his close relationships with Robley’s Māori descendants.

In this talk, Tim will reflect on a series of ‘spaces between’ perspectives of Robley, and will focus on three key moments in time:

• 1864 Tauranga; as a young British officer at Gate Pā and subsequently at the kāinga of Matapihi, where he became the partner of the Ngāti Tapu chieftainess Harete Mauao and father to their son Hamiora Tū Ropere, and

• 1896 London; as the researcher, collector and author of Moko; or Māori Tattooing, and

• 2026 Whanganui; the application of a moko mataora on his great-great-grandson, by the kaitā Rangitākuku Kaihoro, an advocate of Robley’s mahi.

Tim will be presenting in partnership with the mokopuna (descendants) of Robley.

Image: Haka party at Maketu Pa, by Horatio Gordon Robley, possibly 1865. Ref: A-080-051 Alexander Turnbull Library.