GUIDE RANGI OF ROTORUA

Te Ao Hou, July 1969, Page 61

GUIDE RANGI OF ROTORUA by Rangitiaria Dennan with Ross Annabel Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd., $2.75 reviewed by P. J. Ruha Who is Guide Rangi? Read her book and you will know the answer. Guide Rangi is written in such a simple and easy to read style that even children can enjoy it. The many photographs of Rangi provide interesting material — especially the ones of her taken with different members of the Royal Family. In her book, Guide Rangi begins by saying, … ‘I was born in the fashion of my ancestors, in a tiny thatched house at Ngapuna…. ‘Then she goes on to relate her early life as a ‘tapu’ child. She tells of Te Wairoa and Teariki, the two villages on beautiful Lake Tarawera and the disaster that struck when Tarawera erupted in 1886. Her grandfather Tene was a Ringatu, and his religion influenced her younger life so much that she respectfully writes about it in her book. Her account of penny divers and their, ‘Throw a penny here’, and ‘a penny a haka’, makes interesting reading. Rangi's early school days at Whakarewarewa were something to remember. She was different. She was tapu; so the other children had to be careful. However, her schooling did not suffer. This was largely due to the guiding influence of her teachers, the Rev. Burgoyne and his three daughters, Connie, Nettie and Gertrude. Connie was their idol, as she could speak flawless Maori. Rangitiaria pays tribute to the people who influenced her life; her grandfather Tene, Maggie Papakura, and Chief Nuta Taupopoki — … ‘like a sunburned Viking King …’ Rangi spent her secondary school years at Hukarere and from there she went teaching, but ill-health forced her to give it up. So nursing became her next occupation, but a recurrence of her old illness once more ruined a promising career. A very dejected Rangi went home to Whakarewerewa and tourism. In the latter chapters, Guide Rangi tells how she became a guide; of Tene building her a home; of the small but dynamic Scottish district nurse, Sister R. T. Cameron; of the Arawa women uniting in response to tourism; of her wartime interest in ‘the boys’; of her globe-trotting experiences, and last but by no means least of her acting as guide to famous visitors. Chapter 13 is devoted to Wakarewerewa today. As I read Guide Rangi, I could almost see her giving all this wealth of information

to Ross Annabel, the man who so ably helped write her memoirs. Finally, one can only assume that the book went to print before Guide Rangi was awarded the O.B.E. for her services to the Maori people.