File:Statue of Pania of the Reef, Napier, New Zealand (27268691771).jpg

On June 10 1954 a statue of Pania was unveiled on Napier’s Marine Parade by Prime Minister Sidney Holland.

Pania is a figure in Māori mythology. Pania of the Reef was a beautiful maiden who lived in the sea on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. By daylight she swam about with creatures of her reef world but after sunset would go to a stream that ran into the bay where the city of Napier now exists. She left her sea family and married a chief on the mainland, Karitoki.

According to Ta Ao Hou, this is the story of Pania - teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao10TeA/c2...

“After a while Pania gave birth to a son who was completely without hair and so was named Maremare, ‘the hairless one.’ With the birth of this child, Pania's husband became concerned that he might lose him to the sea people. So he consulted a tohunga, in the hope of finding how to keep his child and wife with him always. The tohunga told him to place cooked food upon the mother and child while they slept, and they would never again return to the sea. Evidently something went amiss. Perhaps the food was not properly cooked; for Pania returned to her people never to return. The child Moremore was turned to a shark (taniwha) which lived in the waters around the reef off Hukarere, and at Rangatira, the entrance to the inner harbour at the delta of the river called Ahuriri. When fishermen of today tell the legend of Pania, they claim that at ebb-tide she may be seen lying outstretched at the bottom of the rocky shelf, with her hair still as black as ever and her arms stretched shoreward. According to old Maori folk, however, she was turned into a fishing rock, from which various kinds of fish might be caught. Within the hollow of her left arm-pit only rawaru may be caught, and from her right arm-pit snapper alone, while her thighs yield only the hapuka”

The statue was commissioned by members of the Thirty Thousand Club after the Anglican Bishop of Aotearoa, Frederick Augustus Bennett, related the legend of Pania to them. Several students from Hukarere Girls College were photographed as models for the statue, and eventually, Mei Irihapiti Robin, was selected. A clay likeness of the photograph of Mei and an actual traditional Piupiu skirt were made by the Italian Marble Company of Carrara in Carrara, Italy. The clay model was then used to produce the bronze statue, which is estimated to weigh between 60 and 70 kg.

This picture of the statue was taken by the National Publicity Studios in January 1967.

Title Marine Parade, Napier.

Publicity Caption "Pania of the Reef" on the Marine Parade, Napier.

Photographer Mr. G. Riethmaier. (R24461444)

Reference: AAQT 6539 W3537 68 A80964

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