Honiana Te Puni-Kokopu was a Te Ati Awa chief born in Taranaki, who established settlements in Waikanae, Porirua and the Wairarapa before settling in Petone around 1836. Te Puni welcomed the New Zealand Company to the area and his influence led to the formation of the Wellington Tenths that remains a legacy for his iwi today. He was considered a friend of the settlers, and a patron to Governor George Grey.

Dying in 1870, at an advanced age, Te Puni was buried in Petone in what amounted to a state funeral. The Bishop of Wellington read the service and pall bearers included Native Minister, Donald McLean, and the Superintendent of Wellington, William Fitzherbert. The government erected a monument To Te Puni in his family cemetery. With his wife Wikitoria Muri-tu-waka-roto, Te Puni had seven children and many grandchildren.

Charles Decimus Barraud was born in London, England, in 1822, and was a pharmaceutical chemist. After amrriage, Charles and his wife Sarah emigrated to NZ, on the Pilgrim, arriving in Wellington on on 20 August 1849

Barraud established himself as a chemist, with a shop in Lambton Quay and formed the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand, was its first president, eanacting neccesary legislation. He also pursued his interest in art, travelling around New Zealand to sketch and paint.

Barraud won early recognition as an artist in New Zealand, and his paintings from 1850 onwards are of considerable historical value. He worked mostly in watercolours but also produced a few oils. He did portraits of the Maori chiefs Honiana Te Puni-kokopu and Te Rangihaeata. His 1853 oil 'Baptism of the Maori chief Te Puni in Otaki Church', in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection in the National Library of Australia, Canberra, was commissioned by the governor, George Grey, presumably to illustrate his claims of success in his policy of assimilation of the Maori people. The painting depicts the baptism of Te Puni by Archdeacon Octavius Hadfield in the presence of Maori notables and Sir George and Lady Grey in the Rangiatea Church at Otaki. The ceremony actually took place in Wellington.

Barraud was the principal founder of the Fine Arts Association established in 1882. He succeeded William Beetham as its president two years later. In 1889, when the association was renamed the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, he became president and held the office until his death. It was largely due to his untiring efforts that the academy's first gallery, the forerunner of the National Art Gallery, was built in Whitmore Street, Wellington, in 1892.

For many years he was a churchwarden and vestryman at the Anglican church, St Paul's, and took a keen interest in the erection of the second building in Mulgrave Street, now known as Old St Paul's, opened in 1864. He painted the illuminated texts which adorn the nave. Barraud died in Wellington on 26 December 1897 and was buried in the Bolton Street cemetery, after a service in St Paul's Church.