Mākereti Papakura

Margaret Pattison Staples-Browne (née Thom, 20 October 1873 – 16 April 1930), more commonly known as Mākereti or Maggie Papakura, was a New Zealand guide, entertainer and ethnographer. Of and Māori descent, she was of Te Arawa and Tūhourangi iwi. Her parents were Englishman William Arthur Thom, a storekeeper, and Pia Ngarotū Te Rihi, a high-born Te Arawa woman of Ngāti Wāhiao hapu of Tūhourangi, descended from Te Arawa chiefs Tama-te-kapua, Ngātoroirangi, Hei and Ika.

Papakura was also a skilled entertainer and in the early 1900s established the Rotorua Maori Choir, which she took to Sydney on tour in 1910. The tour was so successful that a group of Sydney businesspeople asked her to organise a concert party to go to London for the Festival of Empire celebrations, and in April 1911 Papakura's group left for England. The group consisted of around 40 members of Papakura's family, including her sister Bella, brother Dick and Tūhourangi leader Mita Taupopoki. The remainder of the group returned to New Zealand in late 1911. Papakura was blamed both for the financial issues and for the group members who had not come back. Papakura died suddenly three weeks before her thesis examination, on 16 April 1930 aged 56, from a ruptured aortic artery. The book was re-printed in 1986 by New Women's Press.

In 2007, a biography of Papakura was published by Paul Diamond, Makereti: Taking Maori to the World, and she was the subject of an exhibition at the National Library of New Zealand.

In 2017, Papakura was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.

A collection of Māori artefacts owned by Papakura was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum, along with her collection of photographs, genealogies and notes for her thesis, by her son William Francis Dennan, following her death.

In April 2025, the University of Oxford announced its intention to posthumously award Papakura a Master of Philosophy degree in anthropology. A ceremony took place at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford on 27 September 2025, when Papakura's descendant June Northcroft Grant accepted a MPhil Anthropology degree certificate on her behalf. More that 100 people travelled to the ceremony from Aotearoa New Zealand. The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey, personally conferred the certificate, describing it as “an honour to finally recognise Papakura’s influence as a scholar” at a time when very few women attended Oxford or completed degrees. Grant noted that it had been “very surreal” to receive the certificate, while members of the extended family performed a haka at the Natural History Museum as a tribute, which was livestreamed to those not inside the Sheldonian Theatre.