25/08/2026
We’ve been quiet on social media. Can’t quite bring ourselves to do a post about honey when we have lost someone who was so important to our very being.
Mākere was behind everything that we have built with Manawa Honey and the Tuawhenua Trust, not just over the years, but over the decades.
Mākere was there when we fought for the lands of the Tuawhenua in the 1970s and 1980s. She was the secretarial engine for all of that endeavour that gave all of the lands of the Tuawhenua back to the owners through a claim to the High Court, well before claims to the Waitangi Tribunal were even thought of.
Makere then assisted the Tuawhenua Trust which was formed by 25 of the land blocks about Ruatahuna, through her support as secretary and hostess for the Trust's meetings and visitors in the 1990s and 2000s.
When her husband Wharekiri Biddle died in 2004, she stepped away from her active secretarial role, but never wavered in her support. She was after all an integral part of the legacy crafted by her husband Wharekiri Biddle and his uncle Hikawera Te Kurapa. Her heart was always with the kaupapa.
Makere hosted Tuawhenua board and research meetings, catering with unforgettable meals and refreshments, and offered her help in everything we did. Even at age 89 she made the trifles for our celebrations, peeled apples for preserves for the Matariki Hamper and processed peaches all day with her mates so that we could have a supply of preserves for the marae and the Matariki hampers.
She was our go-to for the komaka (sorting) of the taewa from our maara. Just this year, when near 90, I suggested to Mākere we put the taewa on a table so she would be comfortable sorting them, but she insisted that she sit on the ground just like she had always done, and y’know, if y’know, that this is how komaka should always be done – nestled on Papatuanuku not in a chair. No question, we do it just as you want it Makere!
So here she is in her happy place, in the open, active, productive, connected, supporting and loving - oh and beautiful as always.
Aue taukuri e, ka ngau tonu te mamae, te pouri. Moe mai Mākere, kua tae koe ki a rātau mā kai tua o te ārai. Kaare koe e warewarehia – tō kaha tautoko i ngā mahi katoa o te Tuawhenua me Manawa Mīere, mai te hīmatanga i te wā i a Hikawera, i a Tangitawhiti, i a Tīkina mā, tae noa ki to pakeketanga, ki ō rā whakamutunga i waenganui i a mātau.
