In the chapel of the Bishop's Palace, Lichfield, England there is a stained glass window that recalls an incident during the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s. It features Heni Te Kiri Karamu.

Heni half English from her father, was descended on her mother’s side from Ngatoro-i-rangi of Te Arawa and belonged to Ngati Uenuku-kopako and Ngati Hinepare of Te Arawa. As a young girl she learned at the mission station of Henry Williams at Paihia. Heni was there when Kororareka was sacked in 1845 and was evacuated to Auckland with her family. Later she was taken to Maketu by a relative and became a pupil at Chapmans’ school at Te Ngae, Rotorua. Returning to her parents in Auckland in 1849. She attended boarding school at the first Wesley College, and then at a Maori school at Three Kings, where she became an assistant teacher.

Heni married a chief named Te Kiri Karamu, a Ngāti Rangiteaorere (one of the iwi of Te Arawa), he was a kauri gum digger, they parted after a quarrel. In 1861 she and her 3 children went to live with her mother at Te Puru near Maraetai.

During the Land Wars Heni identified with the cause of Ngati Koheriki, fluent in Maori, French and English, she acted as a translator to Wiremu Tamihana in the Waikato. In 1864 she was at Te Tiki-o-Te Ihinga-rangi pa at Maungatautari, but on 2 April this pa was abandoned after the battle of Orakau, and Heni went with others to Tauranga. British troops landed in Tauranga in January to stop Maori from the East Coast sending aid to Waikato. The battle of Gate Pa followed.

On 29 April 1864, just over 300 Maori had barricaded themselves in 2 adjacent hill-top fortresses at Gate Pa (Pukehinahina). The larger pa (Maori fort) was occupied by Ngai Te Rangi and the smaller by Te Koheriki, including Heni Te Kiri Karamu. They faced 1500 British troops. Maori women did not usually take part in battles, but Heni was a half-cast and so it was understood she was different and she was allowed to fight beside her brother.

The day began in the pa with prayer as it always did, then the fighting erupted. Twice during the day the British almost succeeded in breaching the walls of the fort, but each time they were driven back. At the end of the day they fell back to their own lines, leaving many dead and wounded on the battlefield.

The Chief an Anglican mission student, Henare Wiremu Taratoa, had made a set of written 'Orders of the Day', a Code of Conduct for Maori Warriors. They were not to harm women or children or those who were unarmed or wounded. At the bottom of the orders, Henare had written, If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. (Romans 12:20).

Towards evening I heard a wounded man calling for water several times, and his repeated calls aroused my compassion. I slung my gun in front of me by means of a leather strap. I said to my brother, “I am going to give that pakeha water.” He wondered at me. I sprang up from the trench, ran quickly in the direction of our hangi (oven), where we had left water in small tin cans, but found them gone. I then crossed to another direction where I knew a larger vessel was, an old nail can, with the top knocked in and no handle. It was full of water; I seized it, poured out about half of the water, and with a silent prayer as I turned, ran towards the wounded man. The bullets were coming thick and fast. I soon reached him. He was rolling on his back and then on his side. I said, “Here is water; will you drink?” He said, “Oh, yes.” I lifted his head on my knees and gave him drink. He drank twice, saying to me, “God bless you.” This was Colonel Booth, as I judged from his uniform and appearance. . . . While I was giving him the water I heard another wounded man begging of me to give him water also. I took the water to him and gave him drink, and another wounded man close by tried to crawl over for a drink. I gave him drink, took the can and placed it by Colonel Booth’s side, and I sprang back to my brother, feeling thankful indeed at being again at his side. - Heni Te Kiri Karamu

After Gate Pa, Heni was involved in other skirmishes against Hauhau forces in the Bay of Plenty area. In 1869, when the wars were over, Heni married a pakeha, Denis Foley and took the name Jane Foley (Heni Pore). They lived first at Maketu, where Denis had run the hotel and the military canteen, and then on a farm at Katikati. Heni attended a theological school and successfully reclaimed various family lands. Denis died in 1890. Heni returned to Rotorua and became a licensed interpreter and an energetic worker for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She was also a secretary of the Maori mission and of the Rotorua Union.

In 1982 some of Heni’s descendants donated her portrait and a commemorative garden plaque to the Anglican church that has stood on the Gate Pa site since the 1890s. In the old church at the Tauranga historic village she is also represented in a painted mural giving water to a British soldier.

BORN: 14 November 1840 at Kaitaia, New Zealand.

DIED: 1933, Rotorua, New Zealand.