Arapeta Awatere

Who is Arapeta Awatere?

Arapeta Marukitepua Pitapitanuiarangi Awatere was a New Zealand interpreter, military leader, maori welfare officer, local politician, convicted murderer. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Ngati Hine, Ngati Porou and Te Whanau-a-Hinetapora iwi. He was born in Tuparoa, East Coast, New Zealand on 25 April 1910. He served as a colonel in the Māori battalion during WWII and is father to the disgraced former MP Donna Awatere Huata.

In 1969 he stabbed to death his girlfriends new lover, which he unsuccessfully tried to blame on diabetes induced pychosis, and was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died unexpectantly 7 years later.