As part of the photography collection of The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa holds a black and white negative portrait by George Crummer (B.027707) labelled, head and shoulders portrait of a young man of Chinese descent also known as Ah Fu Taripo. He is wearing a single-breasted jacket. I have shared this image with my aunties in the Taripo kopu-tangata (kin group) and asked whether they think this is our tupuna (ancestor), who migrated to Rarotonga from Tahiti during the 19th century. It could be him, but it also might not be.
Our family histories premised on accounts recorded in Hilla’s biography of Chinese descendants states when Ah Fu left Tahiti he had his 18-year-old son Anapa Teore with him to avoid repatriation to China. In an interview in 1965, Anapa said he arrived in Rarotonga in 1895 as a 20-year-old man. Ah Fu was encouraged by Vakatini to start business interests and leased him large tracts of land.
The image was produced in 1905 and assuming it was taken that same year this would make Anapa roughly 30 years of age here.  Anapa is my mother’s great-grandfather, who married Tauira-ite-anuanua direct descendant of Makea Pori. Both Anapa and Tauira went on to have 6 children all within quick succession of each other, before Tauira tragically died at the young age of 28.
As a kopu, we are confident that the person in this image is our tupuna, Anapa Teore. However, this raises important questions for me about his wife: who was she, what her life was like, and how she passed away. Although not much is known about Tauira, we do have records of Anapa's business ventures and community involvement from colonial discourses. It is difficult to envision a man without the presence of his wife, particularly given he had no papa’anga (genealogies) to ancestral lands. Despite receiving leased lands from Vakatini, Taripo remains an extensive landholder throughout Rarotonga to this day. This means our land must have come through Tauira. Therefore, for me, this image is not just about whether it is Anapa or not. It's more about gendered histories what we choose to prioritise in our records and what we overlook. As a Pacific Historian, what this image invokes is the importance of also prioristing histories that must always involve our va’ine Māori (women of Cook Islands descent).