Kutarere
locality in Ōpōtiki District, Bay of Plenty Region, New Zealand
Kutarere is a community in the Ōpōtiki District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island, on the coast of the Ōhiwa Harbour.
Following the European settlement of the Ōpōtiki township, Kutarere became a port for incoming goods until October 1959.
A photograph of Kutarere by Brian Brake, taken in the 1980s, is held in the collections in Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
History and culture
Burial controversy
In 2007, Tūhoe man James Takamore was buried at the Kutarere cemetery. It sparked a lengthy legal and protest dispute between his partner and immediate family, who wanted him buried in Christchurch, and his wider family and Kutarere elders, who wanted him to remain buried at Kutarere.
In 2011, courts found the wider family had acted illegally in taking the body without the wife's permission. Attempts to disintern the body in 2014 were blocked by protesters. The two parties reached a confidential resolution through mediation in 2015.
The case sparked a wider legal and ethical debate about New Zealand's burial laws.
Recent history
One person was burnt during a house fire in Kutarere in August 2016.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Kutarere” is locality in Ōpōtiki District, Bay of Plenty Region, New Zealand. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Kutarere, locality and Ōpōtiki, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “locality in Ōpōtiki District, Bay of Plenty Region, New Zealand” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 20, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q25660755. Authority coordinates are -38.046, 177.138. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1959, 2007, 2011 and 2014.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kutarere”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kutarere primary sources, Kutarere archive and Kutarere research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kutarere”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kutarere” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.