Maori name Akanihi Himiona.
Amongst her people she was known by her tribal ancestral name, Kurakitoro.
Daughter of Rawinia Te Rangikawawe and James McAlpin(e).
Akanihi was of Taranaki-tuturu having whakapapa connections to many hapu of that iwi. Her grandfather was Tarakete of the Nga Mahanga hapu and he was a great grandson of the Nga Mahanga chief, Rangimohuta, father of Raumahora who famously married Takarangi of Te Atiawa bringing peace between the two iwi. Tarakete was referred to as a noted tohunga in Akanihi's obituary. Her grandmother was Waikauri of the Ngati Haumia hapu.

Having married Frederick Simeon, a young army volunteer from Australia, in Wanganui in 1866 and after spending time there and then in Napier, Akanihi and Frederick settled in Wellington in 1872. Akanihi is recorded as being "the only woman that came from Taranaki residing in Te Aro pa" as of the mid to late 1870s. She was related to many of the Te Aro elders such as Mohi Ngaponga, Te Teira Whatakore, Hori Ngapaka, Te Munu Ohiro and probably Hemi Parai. She was also related to Te Whiti o Rongomai, Tohu Kakahi, Wiremu Kingi Matakatea and Wi Tako Ngatata through the Taranaki iwi side of their lineages.

Akanihi and family spent some years in the 1880s and again in the 1890s living on ancestral lands back in Taranaki - near Warea and Opunake. During the period 1893 to 1895 they owned and ran the Rahotu hotel and store. Although not followers of Te Whiti and Tohu, Akanihi and Frederick became prominent at the time of the appalling treatment of Parihaka resistors. They paid advertising rates to relay to the nation information gained directly from prisoners coming back on the boats having served their prison terms in Dunedin. Akanihi gave evidence in several Maori Land Court cases either representing herself or the interests of others. She also wrote a number of letters to the Governors-General of the day, about the loss of Maori land in Taranaki and the slowness of the governments of the day to live up to Native land compensation court findings of the mid 1860s.

For full biographical information see 'Nga Tupuna o Te Whanganui-a-Tara' Vol 3 (Wellington City Council & Wellington Tenths Trust, 2005), pp 53-54. Buried at Sydney Street Cemetery
Also see: https://www.wcl.govt.nz/maori/wellington/tupunahimiona.html