Fitzsimons Jeanette: Obituaries — Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Obituaries — Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu 
[Volume:633;Page:4741] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 It is a privilege to rise on behalf of the Green Party to honour the life and the memory of the late Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu and to send our condolences to her whanau her hapu and her iwi and our very best wishes to her son and successor Te Arikinui Tuheitia Paki. 
It was also a great privilege yesterday to stand on the marae at Turangawaewae and to be part of the pageantry the ritual and the superb organisation of the end of the tangi the coronation the funeral and the burial. We Pakeha can learn a lot from the way Maori take time to recognise moments of great historical significance. I think it is appropriate that we are taking time today also. Yesterday was an occasion that comes only rarely in a lifetime. It was an occasion that rallied the Maori nation from across the motu and it was the plainest manifestation I have ever seen of that Maori nation within our nation. There were relatively few Pakeha faces there yesterday but we never felt less than very welcome. 
Dame Te Ata was part of a new generation of Maori women leaders after the war: Te Puea Dame Whina Eva Rickard and many others. With them and others Dame Te Ata led Maori out of a culture of colonisation and into an era of cultural and economic assertiveness. It was a mark of her very different kind of leadership that she was rarely speaking on TV or in the news headlines or making statements or being quoted. But the widespread intense grief at her passing showed that her 40 years of leadership as service—leadership from among the people rather than in front of them—unifying inspiring and healing conflict was a very powerful form of leadership. 
Dame Te Ata’s involvement in the kohanga reo movement showed an understanding of the importance of raising children in their culture and language if they are to grow up knowing whom they are. Her patronage of Maori performing arts showed an understanding that without culture and heritage people are lost. I never had the privilege of meeting Dame Te Ata. Yet after hearing so many people talk about her quiet unassuming leadership her strength her compassion and her grace I feel as though I know her a little. 
Kingitanga grew out of the struggle for land and for the economic and cultural recognition of Maori. Progress has been made and Dame Te Ata has been part of that. But the issues have not gone away. 
As I watched her coffin being carried on to the waka flanked by other magnificent waka being floated down the Waikato River and being carried up Taupiri mountain I thought there could be no greater demonstration of the central place of that river and that mountain to Tainui—as in fact there is of land sea rivers and mountains to iwi throughout this country. 
We wish King Tuheitia Paki courage and strength in his role in strengthening the Maori voice in the affairs of this country and working for resolution of those issues that remain from the original kaupapa of the Kingitanga. We note the very positive intention to hold conversations at Pukawa about a united Maori voice and we look forward to the role that that will play in the evolution of our nation.