Overview
Edward Pohau Ellison: A Māori doctor in the Cook Islands and Niue 1919 -1928
In 1931, a small group of items were received from a Māori administrator with strong ties to the Cook Islands and Niue. Edward Pohau Ellison, of Ngāi Tahu and Te Āti Awa, was a rugby player, doctor and public health administrator. In total, he worked and lived in the Cook Islands for 16 years. Although he was probably based in Rarotonga, Ellison also visited the northern group of islands; however, his collection is only a small reflection of the time he spent in the Cook Islands (Ihaka 1963; Brons & Ellison 2007).
Born at Waikanae in 1884, Ellison was adopted by Harirota, his father’s cousin, and grew up in Taranaki. In the mid-1890s, he returned to live with his parents, who then moved to Otakou on the Otago Peninsula. Ellison attended Te Aute College in 1902 and Te Rau Theological College in 1904. In 1913, he married Tini Wiwi Taiaroa in Christ church. Enrolling at Otago University and, later, its Medical School in 1914, Ellison graduated with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees in 1919. Following his graduation, he was appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Niue in 1919 and, later, Medical Officer and Resident Magistrate for the Chatham Islands in 1923. After returning to study tropical medicine and leprosy at Otago University in 1925, Ellison was appointed CMO and Deputy Resident Commissioner to the Cook Islands in 1926. While in the Cook Islands, his wife died from acute rheumatic fever. Two years later, Ellison returned to New Zealand as Director of the Division of Maori Hygiene in the Department of Health, replacing Peter H.Buck (Te Rangi Hïroa). In 1928, he married Mary Karaka Boyd.
Ellison donated 27 items from Niue and the Cook Islands and one from Papua New Guinea to the Dominion Museum in 1931, probably before taking up his position as CMO to the Cook Islands again in the same year. Cook Islands items in Ellison’s collection were mainly from the northern group, particularly Manihiki, and include a pāreu rau’ara (dance skirt), a headdress, a reru, a moenga, mats for tupe (pitching discs) and a tā‘iri (fan).
Sources:
Brons, T. and Ellison, S. (2007). Ellison, Edward Pohau 1884- 1963. Dictionary of New Zealand biography [website], (updated 22 June 2007), www.dnzb.govt.nz. Accessed 24 September 2009.
Ihaka, K.M. (1963). Edward Pohou Ellison. Te ao hou. The Maori magazine 44: 46-47, 49, 64. (Accessed online at http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao4 4TeA/c16.html, 5 November 2009.)