Pine Taiapa
{{Short description|New Zealand wood carver, farmer, rehabilitation officer, writer and genealogist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox artist
| birth_date = 1901
| death_date = 1972
| nationality = New Zealand
| education = Te Aute College, New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute
| known_for = Māori carving on wharenui
}}
Pineamine "Pine" Taiapa (1901–1972) was a notable New Zealand wood carver, farmer, rehabilitation officer, writer and genealogist."the heART of the matter" BWX Productions (Video 2016), Wellington, NZ. L & J Bieringa He was one of the first students of the School of Māori Arts in Rotorua under Āpirana Ngata. As a carver he was part of over ninety-nine wharenui (Māori meeting houses) around New Zealand.
Biography
Taiapa was born in Tikitiki, East Coast, New Zealand in 1901, to Tamati Taiapa and Maraea Iritawa Taiapa (née Potae).Geni Profile - https://www.geni.com/people/Pineamine-Taiapa/6000000077988628493 Of Māori descent, he identified with the Ngāti Porou iwi. His secondary school education was at Te Aute College in Hawkes Bay.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/905937385 |title=Māori carving : the art of preserving Māori history. |date=2015 |others=Huia Publishers |isbn=978-1-77550-191-6 |location=Wellington |oclc=905937385}}
His earliest carving teacher was master-carver Hone Ngatoto who invited him to work alongside him on the Tikitiki War Memorial Church. The building of this memorial St Mary's church in Tikitiki was instigated by Ngāti Porou leader Āpirana Ngata in the early 1920s and is regarded as 'one of the most beautiful Māori churches in New Zealand'.{{Cite web |date=1 May 2020 |title=Tikitiki church war memorial |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/tikitiki-church-war-memorial |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=NZ History |language=en-NZ}}
Taiapa went on to be one of the first students under Āpirana Ngata at the School of Māori Arts in Rotorua in 1927 which became the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. Between 1947 and 1940 Taiapa worked on over sixty wharenui (meeting houses). Taiapa was then a soldier in World War II, part of the Māori Battalion. On his return he went back to carving and worked on a further thirty-nine wharenui.
Personal life and death
He married Mereaira Te Ruawai Taiapa, by whom he had a child. His younger brother Hōne Taiapa was also a carver.{{DNZB|title=Pineamine Taiapa|first= Angela|last= Ballara|id=4t3|accessdate=1 December 2011}} He died in Tikitiki on 9 February 1972, age 70.
References
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Category:20th-century New Zealand farmers
Category:New Zealand Māori farmers
Category:New Zealand Māori carvers
Category:New Zealand genealogists
Category:20th-century New Zealand historians
Category:People educated at Te Aute College
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