Josephine Reremoana Russell (Ngāi Tahu – Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Ngāti Māmoe) celebrated her 99th birthday on 15 June. Her sight and hearing may be poor and she may now struggle physically but Josephine’s mind is still sharp and her memory of her early days in Hawkes Bay are very much alive and well. Her family took her out to lunch to celebrate her big day.
Josephine Russell was born 15 June, 1915 at Tuahiwi to William (Oliver) Alexander Russell and Louisa Violet (née Barrett). Her paternal grandparents were John Lyons Russell and Koreana Edmunds. Her maternal grandparents were Henry John Barrett and Louise Violet (née) Hunter.
She was sent to the North Island after her mother passed during the 1918 flu epidemic. She stayed with Elizabeth (Bina), her mother’s sister, before being taken to Nuhaka by Martha Sarah Australia, her mother’s eldest sister, where she attended the Nuhaka Native School and learned to speak Māori.
As a young woman Josephine stayed with her Uncle Jimmy and his wife Matehaere, in Pakipaki. It was here she met my father’s older sister, Minnie, who was married to Mum’s cousin Luke Russell, at the time. She found work as a housemaid-nanny on a sheep station at Poukawa. It was during this time that she met my father, Jack Noema Harmer and was married in 1930. I was born in 1940.
During this time they legally adopted my sister Judy, the granddaughter of Mary Tipa, Mum’s eldest sister. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last and I was adopted by Mum’s sister, Martha Wilhelmina Cameron and her husband Leman. Mum remarried Luke (Mihini) Kupa in 1973.
She has survived both spouses plus all of her siblings and is now in care at a Rymans Resthome in Napier. She has nine grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren, two of whom were born this year.
Because she left her father when she was quite young she told me there weren’t many stories or memories that have stayed with her over the years. However, she did tell me that they often met the oyster boats when they came in. I get the impression their father was strict and going to the wharf was frowned upon. But she did say when the oysters were being shelled, the workers threw any broken shells to any of the kids on the wharf at that time. Threepence was a lot of money in those days and could buy you an ice cream plus an extra cone. Those were her happiest memories. Nā Lorraine Nixon.
A quiet time for remembering.
Josephine Reremoana Russell.