TE AO HOU The New World No. 12 [electronic resource] When Whina Cooper became first president of the Maori Women's Welfare League in 1951, there were many who asked the question: Who is Whina Cooper? Today there are few Maoris, particularly Maori women, who could not answer that question. Though for years prior to 1951 Mrs Cooper had worked vigorously on Maori welfare projects her efforts had to that time been mainly concentrated in her native Hokianga area. Since 1951, however, she has become a national figure. It was a long, hard road of achievement that took Mrs Cooper to the honoured position she now holds. Though she is of a high-born family there was a stage in her life when, as a married woman with a young family, she had no material possessions and lived in a nikau whare at remote Te Karaka, on the Hokianga river.
Though it is as Dominion President of the Maori Women's Welfare League she has become widest known some of the other positions she has held give her a claim to special mention as a national figure. —Melvin Taylor. TE AO HOU The New World No. 12 [electronic resource] Te Matakite O Aotearoa - The Maori Land March. The moolelo or korero of Whina Kupa have always inspired native people all over the world.
As a Kupuna of Hawaii surely these women, Eva Rickard, Titewhai Harawira and others have walked the talk. What was the goal, e malama ka aina, e malama ka aina kakou, take care of the land, the land will take care of us. It goes deeper, its the connection to Akua, the creator of the land, nature, the elements. We must take responsibility for the present and the future to our people and those who understand take care of Mother Earth, the aina, the land. TE AO HOU The New World No. 12 [electronic resource]
Whina Cooper - Te Whaea o te Motu (1992) Whina Cooper - This is Your Life (1987) Cooper, Whina – Biography. Page 1 Carver Wiremu Te Ranga (Piri) Poutapu (seated, left) after receiving the MBE honour in 1974 Whina Cooper Whina Cooper, president of the Maori Women's Welfare League, at its 1953 conference Whina Cooper addresses a crowd during the 1975 Maori land march Whina Cooper discussing the Maori Women's Welfare League Cooper, Whina Te Rarawa woman of mana, teacher, storekeeper, community leader This biography was written by Michael King and was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyVolume 5, 2000 Whina Cooper was born Hohepine (Josephine) Te Wake at Te Karaka in northern Hokianga on 9 December 1895.
Growing up at Te Karaka and, from 1904, the adjacent settlement of Whakarapa, Whina was profoundly influenced by her father’s roles as community leader and catechist for the Catholic church, which had been established in the district since 1838. In 1913 Whina was appointed trainee teacher at the Pawarenga Native School on the south shore of Whangape Harbour. It was not. Dame Whina Cooper. Whina Cooper, of Te Rārawa, was born in northern Hokianga in 1895. She took part in local affairs and by the 1930s had become a leader of the northern Hokianga people. In 1932 she played an active role, with Āpirana Ngata, in setting up Maori land development schemes in the region. Eleven schemes (comprising 98,000 acres, or 40,000 hectares) were set up in the Hokianga district, and Whina supervised several. The schemes made rapid progress, although several later proved uneconomic. When her second husband (Bill Cooper) died in 1949 Whina moved to Auckland.
Here she found a new role as a pan-tribal Māori leader. She was foundation president of the Maori Women's Welfare League, and was active in creating regional branches. Whina Cooper is perhaps best known for leading the famous 1975 land march from Te Hāpua (in the far north) to Parliament in Wellington. Whina Cooper continued in public life, opening the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990. Adapted from the DNZB biography by Michael King.