Mary Tautari

Mary Constance Tautari (, died 2 January 1906) was a Māori schoolteacher, interpreter, and postmaster in New Zealand. She was the founder and head teacher of the Taumārere Native School. The school developed a good reputation as a day school and boarding school, primarily serving Māori girls. Born in Māhia Peninsula, she married the trader Hēmi Tautari. They lived in Taumārere, where they were the primary drivers for the construction of a Māori church.

Early life and marriage Perry was born in Māhia Peninsula to Harieta Haumu, a Hokianga Māori woman, and Robert Perry, a British officer with George Grey. Her date of birth is not known. She had an English governess and learned French, piano, literature, history, and "all the refinements of the English gentry". She also knew Māori and identified with her mother's people. The school quickly grew to accommodate 20 students, 12 of whom were boarders. Despite Grey's characterisation of Tautari as Europeanised, records identified her as Māori and she lived in a Māori community, married to a Māori man.

Tautari attended hearings of the Native Land Court and was a witness before the Rees-Carroll Native Land Laws Commission in 1891. She argued that title determination for land in the Puhipuhi block was influenced by the unfair allocation of advances. She described the Native Land Court system as being unfair, expressing her preference for a rūnanga-based system and saying "I have actually seen people who ought to have the land absolutely lose it." She successfully petitioned the House of Representatives to discharge a mortgage in 1894.

Tautari continued to run the day school until her death on 2 January 1906 in Rawene. The school closed after she died.