Tim Walker and Robley (Te Ropere)

On 7^th April a good turnout of Society members were on hand to listen to Tim Walker talk knowledgeably and entertainingly about Robley’s relationship with Tauranga and New Zealand.

Cover of Robley – Soldier with  Pencil, by L.W. Melvin, 1957
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī

Tim Walker has been researching the life and endeavours of Horatio Gordon Robley (1840-1930) since 1980. His 1985 Master Thesis Robley: Te Ropere is available online. Robley was a Lieutenant with the 68^th Durham Light Infantry in Tauranga in 1864-1866. During that time he took part in the battles at Pukehinahina (the Gate Pa) and Te Ranga. But it was the experiences afterwards, as he developed close relationships with Māori, that had an indelible influence on him. These relationships, which were centred on his love of painting Māori life and portraits, opened up friendship s. In 1865 he ‘married’ Harete Mauao, daughter of the rangatira Tāmati Mauao who died in the same year. Their son, Hamiora Tu Ropere (also known as Sam Robley) was born in 1866. In 1983 Tim connected with Robley’s great granddaughter, the late Googie Te Weurangi Tapsell of Maketū who answered his letter to the editor in the Bay of Plenty Times.

From his portraiture, Robley developed a strong interest in moko. As a retired Major General in London in the last decade of the 19^th Century, Robley set about research for his book MOKO; Or Maori Tattooing (1896). As part of this, he  sought out preserved Māori heads, which he saw as key to understanding the art - which he knew had ceased to be practiced. Over time, he went on to collect close to forty examples. His attempts to see the collection back in Aotearoa were unsuccessful, with the collection finding a home at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1907. In 2014, the collection came home, thanks to the Te Papa Tongarewa repatriation programme. While often seen as someone with an interest in the macabre, Robley’s interest was firmly centred in his belief that moko was the most sophisticated non-Western artform in the world. His growing awareness that it was a ‘system’ of design that generated new designs as it was practiced, led him to believe it would one day re-emerge. When he did, his hope was that a new generation of practitioners would be able to see ‘the old art’ ‘in the skin’, and ‘in the round’.

Tim is now working on a book centred on Robley, who maintained links with Tauranga all his life. Tim would appreciate hearing from anyone who may know of the existence of  material in private hands relating to Robley. In particular, he is interested in knowing more about Mr G G McCandlish who was a correspondent of Robley’s in the 1920s, and Mr Robley Ngatai who was born in the 1890s, probably in or near Otūmoetai. Email Tim