Legacy lives on: Dame Whina Cooper's template for leadership
Wednesday, 22 June 2022
A Taranaki woman who has dedicated more than 50 years of her life to supporting Māori whānau says she still looks to Dame Whina Cooper to help guide her mahi.
Waitara’s Tiahuia Abraham called Cooper an inspiration to many and said that she created a pathway to leadership that other wāhine Māori have been able to follow.
Cooper’s life story is the subject of a bio-pic which is due for release in cinemas nationwide on June 23.
It tells the story of her activism from a young age and how she stood up to fight for the causes she believed in.
In 1975, Cooper joined Te Rōpū Matakite o Aotearoa, a group which was formed to fight against the alienation of Māori from their land, under the mantra of “not one more acre”.
**READ MORE:
* First look at Rena Owen as Dame Whina Cooper
* Dame Whina Cooper's daughter says Significant Natural Areas means SNAtch Māori lands
* Māori organisation's 65 year legacy of 'loyalty and commitment'
**
As part of her campaign to generate support for the movement, Cooper visited Owae Marae on Tā Māui Pōmare Day in June 1975.
The land march left Te Hāpua, in the Far North in September that year, and participants traversed 1054 kilometres before arriving in Wellington. The march ended with Cooper leading about 5000 people onto Parliament grounds.
Her virtues as a leader were also on display as founder and first president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL), a grassroots organisation which helps with housing, employment and education.
Cooper died in 1994, at the age of 98.
Abraham has been a MWWL member for 53 years and met Cooper through the course of her work.
“To me, she [Cooper] is the league. She was an inspiration to me and probably a lot of us. That’s what we wanted to be as Māori women.”
Abraham said Cooper fought for issues she believed in, and to create better outcomes for Māori people.
“We still do all these things,” Abraham said of MWWL.
“It’s all followed through from the work Dame Whina did in the league.”
Abraham said she still drew inspiration from Cooper, in the way she supported and empowered people.
“Her legacy, for me, will live on.”
New Plymouth’s vivian Hutchinson was part of the land march and knew Cooper well.
“Whina was a force of nature, and it was a privilege to be able to work with her on the land rights and justice issues that are still important kaupapa for all New Zealanders,” he said.
“She often said to me ‘we [Māori and Pākehā] are in this together, and we need to solve these issues together’.”