Indigenous Archives - Page 27 of 37

Mary Geddes

Mary Geddes, along with other YWCA representatives, took a leading role in the revival of the National Council of Women of New Zealand in Auckland in 1917.

Wilma Smith

Violinist Wilma Smith maintained a strong profile as soloist and chamber musician in Australasia.

Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie was a Ngāi Tahu (or Kāi Tahu) leader and woman of mana, and a prominent activist in the fields of Māori welfare and health from the 1970s to the 1990s. She was a long-serving member and president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and an acclaimed researcher in the area of Māori women’s health. She also served on the Human Rights Commission and in a wide variety of other public positions. An accomplished actor, singer and orator, she also composed waiata and poetry.

Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa

On 1 December 1971 the young Kiri Te Kanawa took the operatic world by storm when she made her debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden.

Matekoraha Te Peehi Jaram

Maori Ngati Maru, Ngati Awa and Ngati Pukeko; weaver, tailoress, community leader

Tuini Ngāwai

Tuini left behind a rich legacy of songs and an unsurpassed standard of composition, work and community leadership.

Nandergoroke

Bunurong woman from the 1800s who was taken captive and enslaved by white men

Hannah Retter

Muaūpoko; founding mother, midwife

Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia

On 18 May 1893 the Speaker of the lower house of the Kotahitanga parliament introduced a motion from Meri Mangakāhia, requesting that women be given the right to participate in the selection of members. It was suggested that she come into the house to explain her motion, and later that day she addressed the parliament – the first woman recorded to have done so. She requested not only that Māori women be given the vote, but that they be eligible to sit in the Māori parliament

Edith Kanakaʻole

Edith Kanaka’ole (also affectionately called “Aunty Edith”), a native Hawaiian composer, chanter and dancer, was a champion for the preservation of native Hawaiian culture and arts. Kanaka’ole lead the highly celebrated dance school, Hālau o Kekuhi, where her legacy as a Kumu Hula, or chief practitioner of traditional Hawaiian dance and culture, took flight. 