Tame Parata Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Tame Parata
Birth Date:1837
Birth Place:Ruapuke Island, New Zealand
Death Place:Puketeraki, near Karitane, New Zealand
Spouse:Peti Hurene (Elizabeth Brown)
Relatives:Hekia Parata
(great-great-granddaughter)
Constituency Mp1:Southern Maori
Parliament1:New Zealand
Term Start1:1885
Term End1:1911
Predecessor1:Hōri Kerei Taiaroa
Successor1:Taare Parata

Tame Parata (1837 – 6 March 1917), also known as Thomas Pratt, was a Māori and a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in New Zealand.

Parata was born on Ruapuke Island in Foveaux Strait.[1] His father was a Captain Trapp, a whaler from Massachusetts, and his mother was Koroteke of the Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe and Waitaha tribes. It is said that Tame reversed his father's name to Pratt, and transliterated it to Parata in Māori.

He won the Southern Maori electorate in the 1885 by-election after the resignation of Hōri Kerei Taiaroa, and held it to 1911, when he retired; he was succeeded in the electorate by his youngest son, Taare Parata. Subsequently, on 13 June 1912 Parata Sr was appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council, where he sat until he died on 6 March 1917. Hekia Parata, a former member of Parliament, is his great-great-granddaughter.[2] New Zealand academic and playwright John Broughton is his great-grandson.

References

Notes and References

  1. News: News Items . 15 January 2014 . Colonist . 30 December 1896 . XL . 8751 . 3.
  2. Matt . Calman . July 2011 . Taking sides . Te Karaka . 50 . 18–19 . Christchurch . Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu . 1173-6011.