Nopera Pana-kareao

Nopera Pana-kareao (? – 13 April 1856) was a New Zealand tribal leader, evangelist and assessor. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Te Rarawa iwi.^[1]

Nopera lived at Kaitaia. He became a friend of William Gilbert Puckey, the son of William Puckey, who worked with Joseph Matthews to establish the Church Missionary Society mission station at Kaitaia in 1833.^[2] He was called Noble Pana-kareao by the missionaries, who held him in high regard.^[3]

Nopera signed the Treaty of Waitangi. He stated his understanding of the Treaty as ‘Ko te atarau o te whenua i riro i a te kuini, ko te tinana o te whenua i waiho ki ngā Māori’ (The shadow of the land will go to the Queen [of England], but the substance of the land will remain with us). Nopera later reversed his earlier statement – feeling that the substance of the land had indeed gone to the Queen; only the shadow remained for the Māori.^[4]

During the Flagstaff War (1845–46) he supported Tamati Waka Nene and his brother Eruera Maihi Patuone in opposing Hone Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti.^[5]

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