This countdown to Christmas/Kirihimete, I gift to you… inspiration. On the second day to Christmas, I’d like to introduce the inspiring wāhine Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia.
Meri fought for Māori women to be given the vote, and for the right to sit in the Māori Parliament (Te Kotahitanga).
Meri was born in the Lower Waihou, in Hokianga in March 1868, and died of influenza in October 1920.
Her father Re Te Tai encouraged her to be ambitious. She learned the intricacies of politics from her father, who would bring her along to hui with the likes of Te Rangi Hīroa and Sir Āpirana Ngata. She married Hāmiora Mangakāhia, a chief and the first Premier of Te Kotahitanga, and they had four tamariki.
In 1893, she was given the opportunity she had been working for, to be the first wāhine to give a speech at Te Kotahitanga. She passionately addressed the all tāne Te Kotahitanga, and implored that Māori women should not only have the right to vote, but to sit as members of Te Kotahitanga, as they were land-owners. She concluded her speech by saying, “Perhaps the queen may listen to the petitions if they are presented by her Māori sisters, since she is a woman as well.”
On the 20th of December 1893, four thousand wāhine voted for the first time.
Image: Frederick W. Mason.