Mere Harper

Mere (Mary) Harper (7 May 1842 – 30 May 1924), born Mary Apes / Mere Hipi and also known as Big Mary or Mere Hapa was a porter, cultural informant, and midwife of Kāi Tahu and Kāti Huirapa descent. She was the main informant for ethnographer William Anderson Taylor's work on Kāi Tahu history, and is credited as one of the midwives who paved the way for the creation of the Plunket Society of New Zealand.

Family and early life Mere's mother was Mata Punahere. Originally from Arowhenua, she probably came to Puketeraki for shelter during the 1830s war with Ngāti Toa, and became known there as a "very honest" woman trusted with unlimited credit at the local store.

Her father Elisha Apes, later known as William, was a Pequot born in 1815 in Groton, Connecticut, younger half-brother to William Apess. He also had European ancestry on at least his father's side, and was described as a "dark man" and as having "flaxen-coloured hair and blue eyes". He went to sea in 1832 as a whaleman and by 1839 worked on the Ann Maria on its voyage to New Zealand. Known as a big and powerful man, in support of a shipmate's protest against the captain's mistreatment of the ship's boy he fought with the ship's mate and seized the captain's firearms. As the crew refused to put down the mutiny, the captain agreed to put the two men ashore at the next port, Port Chalmers. In fact he considered her his "best informant" and recalled that she and he had "sat often in those days that are gone, well into the night, going over stories of the past on the slopes of Karitane". and, with the aid of the extensive networks established by Mere and Ria, as well as their decades of experience and the traditional knowledge they held, soon developed into the Plunket Society.

Death and posthumous recognition Mere died on 30 May 1924 at age 82, having lived her whole life in Waikouaiti. She was buried at Puketeraki.