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Overview
Amokura is a well-shaped and expertly fashioned mere pounamu (greenstone hand club) with a long and elegant form. It is made from the kawakawa (dark) variety of pounamu (New Zealand greenstone), and is characterised by black flecks. It has six grooves on the reke (butt).
Origin
Amokura occupies a special place in the history of the Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Toa tribes, and is associated with several of their leading chiefs. As a young man, Te Rauparaha became the weapons bearer to his uncle, Hape-ki-tua-a-rangi, then principal chief of Ngāti Raukawa, and it was here that he received his final education in conducting warfare. When Hape-ki-tua-a-rangi's health declined, Ngāti Raukawa gathered to hear his ōhākī (dying instructions). Twice he asked who would succeed him as leader. Only Te Rauparaha responded and, addressing the assembly of chiefs, announced, 'Whakarongo mai e te whakaminenga nei, e koe hoki e te tūpāpaku! Ko ahau tonu ko Te Rauparaha, te Rangatira i muri i a koe hei whakakapi mō tou tūnga' ('Listen, the assembly gathered here now, and to you Sir who now prepares himself for the endless sleep! I, Te Rauparaha, will succeed you as a chief for the people').
Through the generations
After Hape-ki-tua-a-rangi's death, Te Rauparaha was arranged in marriage to his widow, Te Akau (Tuhourangi), and presented with the mere pounamu Amokura. Te Rauparaha later presented Amokura to the Ngāti Raukawa chief Kiharoa, through whom it descended to his son Wi Perahama Te Mahauariki, and subsequently to his daughter Hiiria Amokura. Amokura became the treasured ancestral heirloom of Hiiria and her husband Hoani Taipua Te Puna-i-rangi-riri, an important and influential leader of Ngāti Raukawa and the parliamentary representative for the Western Māori electorate from 1886 to 1893.