Two writing slates used in 1830s Kerikeri by young women at the forefront of Maori literacy have been added to a United Nations register of the world's most important historic documents.
The slates — which were discovered in 2000 under a lean-to at Kemp House, New Zealand's oldest surviving building — were among eight collections from around the country added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register this week.
One slate was used by Rongo Hongi, daughter of the renowned Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika and his wife Turikatuku. It is inscribed with lines and signed at the bottom with "Na Rongo Hongi, a[ged] 16".
![A slate dating to around 1830 etched with Rongo Hongi's signature and age. Photo / Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/KLDRL4FT27CIHOHL6SKSV5SIII.jpg?auth=23d517db469b11a3192c82c76c783defc39591337042b49a6dea8ca7e6e4d59c&width=16&height=17&quality=70&smart=true)
Rongo lived with the Kemp family at Kerikeri Mission Station as a young girl in the 1820s and again after the death of her father in 1828, when she attended a girls' school run by Martha Clarke, wife of missionary George Clarke.