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Ramona Thompson

Guide

Te Arawa, Tuhourangi, Ngati Wahiao

Ramona Thompson was a penny haka kid. She and her cousins would sneak up from their village to entertain tourists when no-one was looking. “As soon as the guides’ backs were turned we would jump out and do a haka. We must have looked a sight but visitors would give us a penny and ask us not to stop. We were the penny haka kids,” she says. “We made a lot of money but we never wasted it. We used our pennies to buy our school books and shoes to help our families.”

The pennies are gone but Ramona is still here and after more than 30 years is the longest serving guide at Te Puia. Not surprising, her mum and grandmother were also guides. “They instilled in me the importance of caring for others. If a family in the village needed food, my mum would go and share our groceries. That’s our way.”

It is a unique character of Te Puia that many of its workers are descendants of original staff. They belong to the land and, like the stories they tell, span generations.

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