The Māori Women's Welfare League turns 70 years old and isn't ready to retire
Friday, 24 September 2021
Forget the ‘nannies brigade’. The Maori Women’s Welfare League is as vital and necessary today as it was when it was founded 70 years ago. Maxine Jacobs speaks to three generations of wāhine, from the same whānau, committed to continuing the league’s legacy.
At 12 years old, the future was set for Reriti Tau.
“If you're old enough to have an ATM card you’re old enough to join the league,” her tāua (grandmother) told her.
As a legacy member of Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko i te Ora, the Māori Women's Welfare League, the now 29-year-old feels the pressure to uphold the voices of wāhine Māori.
But it's her birthright, she said, and one she's glad to shoulder as she works to help create a brighter future for Māori.
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Auckland-based Tau is the fourth generation of her Ngāi Tahu whānau from Canterbury to serve in the league. She works alongside her tāua, Dame Aroha Reriti-Crofts and māmā Amiria Reriti, to support Māori across Aotearoa.
The whānau is proud of its achievements and what they do for families, like theirs, but the league’s work is never done.
As Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko i te Ora, the Māori Women's Welfare League, enters its 70th year, current president Prue Kapua says the legacy that surrounds its members, are traditions they continue to follow and build upon, and it’s empowering.
But the issues wāhine Māori and, indeed, whānau Māori faced in 1951 when the league first started, are still rife.
Seven decades ago, on September 25, almost 90 wāhine, representing 187 branches and 2500 members, gathered at Wellington’s Ngāti Poneke Hall for the first conference of Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko i te Ora.
It’s been an uphill battle ever since, independently advocating for wāhine and whānau Māori.
Early leaders refused to bow down to the Crown, that sought to place them under the umbrella of the Government.
It allowed them to be independent as the first national Māori organisation established in New Zealand, speaking freely to any decisions affecting whānau, which is every decision the Government has made, says Kapua.
The league has researched health inequalities, built clinics and developed educational institutions. Together its members have spearheaded programmes to help Māori quit smoking, increase their fitness, upskill wāhine, and promote tamariki health.
Kapua says the programmes are successful because they have been rolled out by wāhine Māori for wāhine Māori and their whānau, but the contribution it could make in these areas is no less required today than it was 70 years ago.
The work of the rōpū hasn't always been in the minds of New Zealand’s political leaders, she says, but it’s been seen in the lives of Māori, as members continue to address the issues of urbanisation and health inequities.
Tau’s mother, Amiria Reriti, 60, was 16 when she joined the league in 1976 after watching Dame Miraka Szaszy speak on the marae.
“As a young impressionable woman it was tapu to speak on the marae, so that impressed me,” says Reriti.
Her mother, Dame Aroha Reriti-Crofts, was often away from home working for the league, which bothered her when she was younger. “I wasn’t seeing necessarily that we were the beneficiaries of that,” she says.
A shy young woman, Reriti gained her confidence as she moved through the leadership ranks.
She learned how to pitch to Government officials, speak on behalf of her delegation, and provide strong advocacy for the array of concerns she saw among Māori families.
Today, Reriti is the league's vice-president, following in the footsteps of her māmā, a former president. It's not a question of relevance in modern society, Reriti says, the league has always been necessary to challenge the status quo.
“It's good if you’ve been a member and understand what the focus and the vision of it is. I get tired of those who make throwaway comments about the league being the nannies' brigade,” says Rereti.
“All these women, they’re pioneers in their own right.
Although the league prefers to let its mahi (work) do the talking, it found itself in a troubling spotlight ten years ago.
When Destiny Church co-founder Hannah Tamaki vied for presidency in 2011, the eyes of the nation turned to the league.
The league investigated some of its branches as membership numbers suddenly jumped. At the time, Tamaki said the league’s move was a bid to halt her leadership aspirations, leading to her attempt to sue the rōpū.
But the High Court ruled Tamaki had stacked the league with extra members, and suspended their votes.
Reriti says it’s disappointing that it’s this incident that’s seared into the minds of many people when they think of the league, rather than all the mahi that wāhine have committed to and carried out over 70 years.
From Dame Whina Cooper, the league’s founding president, and other women alongside her, many have given thousands of hours of voluntary work to improve Māori health, welfare, and cultural strength.
Where other groups failed to make progress, Māori women have emerged as champions, succeeding through the kaupapa of putting Māori first, says Rereti.
The league was staunch in its opposition to the Springbok Tour in 1981, and refused to accept the suggestion of “honorary white” players.
It was at the forefront of the kōhanga reo movement which opened its first centre in 1982.
In 1984, more than 1100 wāhine were surveyed in 80 days to create the milestone research report Rapuora: Health and Māori Women, highlighting health concerns among whānau Māori.
Aotearoa Māori Netball was established under Dame June Hinekahukura Mariu in 1987 to promote healthy lifestyles, which has created a decades-long legacy.
The league established Māori Women’s Development Incorporated in 1997 to uplift Māori women in business and gain financial independence.
And every step along the way, it has been on the ground, working to improve Māori welfare, from helping whānau access kai, acting as matua whāngai during Oranga Tamariki uplifts, and raising a voice to highlight the inequities between Māori and Pākehā.
Reriti-Crofts, former president of the Māori Women's Welfare League, says she is proud of her daughter and mokopuna who have taken on the service she committed to in 1968.
Including Tau, the 83-year-old has four mokopuna in the league in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and Ōtipōti (Dunedin). It’s in their blood to serve their whānau.
Tātau tātau, she says, repeating the league’s motto. All of us together.
“Seventy years of advocacy for whānau, Māori women and children is a long history.
“Given that the organisation was set up for Māori women to air their voices, I think the welfare league has been hugely successful.”
Reriti-Crofts joined the Ōtautahi branch, then called the Christchurch branch, with her aunty after she heard other whānau talking about the rōpū (group).
It was the thrill of being a Māori woman in a Māori organisation that would never back down from doing what was best for whānau, no matter what the challenge, she says.
And the kaupapa (purpose) continues today. She watches as generations of Māori women work to build a better future for the next generation, she hopes will take up the commitment after them.
Covid-19 has meant the cancellation of the league’s annual conference for two years in a row now, a real blow for members who miss the physical connection of the branches, but plans remain to host the conference when the country returns to alert level 1.
Despite the interruptions, Reriti-Crofts has been using Zoom to connect with delegates to ensure they continue to reach those who need them the most.
“We cover such a lot of ground in supporting whānau spiritually, physically, educationally, economically, and in justice. Anything that affects Māori, affects the league, so we’re right there.
“Unfortunately the governments of the day have not been very supportive of the league, but that matters not because we can target any government.
“We’re never going to go away because we’re still needed. We have to be there for our people.”
Kapua agrees. A lot has changed in the past 70 years, but the issues haven’t.
“Things haven’t worked. We’re not in a better position, the issues that we have are no different in terms of the statistics.
Covid-19 has been a prime example of the importance of the league, Reriti says.
As a Māori liaison to Auckland’s regional public health service, Reriti is constantly reminded of inequities, such as vaccination rates, and the lack of trust some Māori have in the health system.
Before and during the initial roll-out of the Pfizer vaccines, Māori health experts begged the Government to target all Māori age groups, but they were ignored, she says.
And despite the best efforts of Māori health providers working to improve vaccination rates, it has not been enough. Their plans have been hamstrung by resource constraints, a lack of funding, and an ineffective national vaccine campaign creating more inequitable health outcomes for Māori.
“Successive governments haven’t revamped or restructured to take into account another world view,” Reriti says.
“It’s monocultural. There is a process of healing and I would like to build on that.”
The league should act as a bridge between whānau and government agencies, to share knowledge and support the efforts of Māori and Pākehā to work towards positive outcomes for whānau, Kapua says.
“The time has passed to be sitting and waiting for the Government to have an epiphany. We have a huge amount of expertise and experience in the league.
“There hasn’t been a difference in the results, and what we need to look at is what is the danger is doing things differently. One of the ways is to give the league a seat at the table.”
In the past 10 years, Kapua has worked to modernise the league, advocating for seats at select committees and state inquiries, building working relationships with agencies and ministries, and upskilling members to support the activism their tīpuna (ancestors) founded the rōpū on.
“We’ve tended to be separate branches where we work independently, but now we work collectively so, where we need to, we can push as a national body.
“There’s an element of where you need to get into a position where they’re afraid to ignore you. You can use a number of different ways to influence that.”
Last year the league signed a memorandum of understanding with the police to advise them on how to improve their policies when working with Māori.
“Some people would say, ‘Why are you doing that,’ but [the police] were one of the first agencies to come to us and say, ‘We know there are some trust issues, but we want to know how we can do better.’”
The league did the same with Oranga Tamariki, entering into a strategic partnership to identify areas of improvement.
Countless letters have also been written to minsters and agencies pushing for Māori voices to have a say, not just be heard. It’s an issue the league has struggled with since its inception, Kapua said.
One of the key issues is funding. There’s no philanthropic body pumping the Māori Women’s Welfare League with cash, so for now it is reliant on the goodwill of those in power listening to their voices.
But with an international stage that could change.
Last month the league attained ECOSOC status at the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council, earning its delegations the right to attend forums to voice their concerns for wāhine and whānau to the world.
“If you want to make change domestically, the eyes of the international body can help you,” Kapua says.
For Tau, she hopes the fight will end.
The perspective the league brings to the issues facing Māori is hugely important now, but she hopes for a future where the league is unnecessary.
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“What I love about the league is that all these issues we’re fighting in our iwi, we bring to the league and we fight them together, but my hope is we don’t have to fight anymore.
'But until that day comes, I hope we continue to bring new wāhine into the league of different generations and voices who will continue to stand up for Māori.”
In the words of Te Puea Hērangi, the daughter of the second Māori King and the first patroness of the Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko i te Ora: “Ko te puawaitanga o ngā moemoea, me whakamahi.” Dreams become reality when we take action.