Pura McGregor

Pura McGregor (née Te Pura Manihera, c. 1855 – 4 March 1920), also known as Pura Makarika, was a community leader in Whanganui, New Zealand, and the first Māori woman to receive an MBE.

Biography McGregor was born in about 1855 at Karatia on the Whanganui River. Her father was killed in the New Zealand Wars at the Battle of Moutoa in 1864. After her father's death, her mother married Stewart Manson, who owned stores in Whanganui and surrounding settlements.

McGregor resided for most of her married life at 129 Harrison Street in Whanganui, She was active in the Wanganui Beautifying Society and enlisted the help of both Pākehā and Māori locals to plant native shrubs and trees around Rotokawau Virginia Lake in Whanganui as well as raising funds. Her honour is recorded as an MBE in the 1919 Yearbook and other sources of the time. Other sources record it as an OBE. She was the first Māori woman to receive the honour. now the Heads Road Cemetery.

In 1921, a waka maumahara (memorial canoe) to McGregor was erected at Toronui Point on Rotokawau Virginia Lake; it consisted of a half tōtara river canoe set with the bow pointing towards the sky. Artist Alexis Neal, stimulated by seeing McGregor's artefacts during her 2012 Tylee Cottage residency in Whanganui, created a woven woollen cloak and other items for an exhibition held at the Sarjeant Gallery in 2015 in her memory.