Introduction

I was barely three years of age when my mother Alice or LiliBud to her friends, took me to my grandmother Mary Gundry Wi Repa’s home in Opotiki. I remember sitting low to the dinner table opposite my brother Michael Angelo and cousin Pinky whose hair would become synonymous with her nickname over time.

We were given sweet potatoe or kumara as it is best known, made all the sweeter with generous lashings of butter. We giggled and carried on as kids did at that age pulling faces at one another whilst getting remonstrated for not concentrating on our eating.

I recall huge watermelons being picked from the surrounding backyard in the summer months and sitting eagerly on the back steps watching the knife carve deeply into these huge and very luscious fruits. The juice would run down my chin made more enjoyable with the laughter it brought with it.

This website is a dedication to our grandmother, to her origins and whakapapa (heritage) that dates back to both the 14th and 16th centuries. It describes her life prior to her marriage and her feelings regarding events as they occurred. She describes her marriage to Romio Wi Repa of Whanarua Bay as a ‘challenge that appeals in some aspects’.

Romio was a First World War veteran, was captain of his rugby team and the youngest child of a very large family. They were to have nine children together and would whangai the first born grandchild to each of their daughters.

Featured in this website is, Mary’s autobiography up to her marriage, kept as close to the hand written draft as possible. Only minor changes have been made to the flow and the syntax in order to preserve the real essence of her writings. It begins 1904 when she was just a little girl and she speaks of her love and joy she had for her father. Her story pre-marriage is bittersweet, struggling with life in an Orphanage and Convent schools, but it speaks dearly of the Whakatohea Chieftainess Katerina Takoto Kaneri ‘even then you could see that she was a very grand and stately person of small stature with blue-grey eyes’ and Mary speaks warmly of her house as ‘the most beautiful place in the world’.

Mary was a child with one other sibling, Arthur Gundry, and her relationship with him was also loving and respectful. She talks about how “we would play sailing boats made from raupo in the nearby creek” and later when they were older “my poor brother bought my shoes out of his wages”. It illustrates very clearly the depth of caring Arthur had for his little sister Mary.

Nanny Mary dedicated her life to her family and it was in her later years that she discovered and developed her talent for painting. It was believed that her talent for art has been derived from her English heritage and it was mentioned that her grand Uncle also named Arthur Gundry was a gifted artist who studied under John Kinder and then went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in England. Nanny Mary informed the historian Alison Drummond that “he also sketched Queen Victoria in pencil at the Queen’s request, and that she gave him in return a signet ring with her crest on it”. Arthur was to have one of his pictures accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy.

With very little formal training, Mary Gundry Wi Repa taught herself to paint. This website has endeavoured to illustrate her paintings and present to the public the media interest surrounding her work and the influence her passion had on persons she knew including friends and family. It is this work that I hope that you will peruse with joy and I look forward to any comments that you might have or information that you might feel could contribute. I hope you enjoy this small insight into her life.

Yours very truly,
Silvana Wi Repa