Atareta Poananga
Tributes have been paid to longtime campaigner for Maori rights and former Gisborne district councillor Atareta Poananga (Ngati Porou, Ngati Kauwhata), who died last week.
Minister of Employment Willie Jackson said she left a legacy of courage and brilliance, while musician and documentary maker Moana Maniopoto described her as “very intelligent” and regal in her beauty.
Born in Whangarei in 1952, Atareta was the daughter of Major Bruce Poananga and his wife Colleen.
Her father served with 28 (Maori) Battalion during World War 2 and was later a United Nations peace observer in the Middle East and Pakistan. The family lived in the Middle East in the mid-1960s, mainly in Damascus and Jerusalem, and Atareta received part of her education there.
Her father’s military career extended over 37 years.
She attended Tauranga Girls’ High School and Takapuna Grammar.
Atareta Poananga graduated from Auckland University with a BA in political studies in 1974 and an MA in 1976.
In 1977 she was the first Maori woman diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was dismissed in 1982 but that dismissal was ruled invalid by the Court of Appeal in 1986.
She was education officer for the Northern Clerical Workers Union where she worked with Willie Jackson and his uncle Sid, in a union that was 90 percent Pakeha and mainly women. Tau Henare, who also went on to become an MP, was a colleague too.
She was also a member of the Auckland Maori Council.
She graduated with an LLB in 1995.
Atareta was a member of Gisborne District Council from 1998 to 2010, representing the former Matakaoa Ward.
She had quite an impact on local government here during her four terms as a councillor.
Throughout her time on the council she was strongly focused on Maori issues, leading to frequent clashes with more conservative councillors.
Typical of these clashes was the dispute that arose over her travel allowance. Although she represented the Matakaoa Ward in the northern part of the district, she lived in Gisborne and claimed mileage to attend meetings in her ward, which attracted opposition from other councillors.
As the council struggled with Maori representation, she was part of a whenua working group and then named on a Maori committee that never actually sat.
She was a member of the Maori Party and stood in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti seat in the 2005 general election, losing to the Labour Party’s Parekura Horomia. She polled second, losing by 1932 votes.
She also served one term on the Tairawhiti District Health Board, being elected in 2010.
Atareta was a prominent spokeswoman on Maori issues from her youth.
She is mentioned in Michael King’s The Penguin History of New Zealand, as one of a group he says spoke out more abrasively than their predecessors in questioning whether the public service and local authority structures were the most appropriate ones to deal with the needs of the indigenous people.
She attracted national attention in the mid-1980s with her comments, at a conference in Australia on colonial heritage, that the white people who colonised Australia and New Zealand were the products of riff-raff and the flotsam and jetsam of Europe. She said Pakeha should leave the country so Maori could have true rangatiratanga.
After her terms on the council she continued to be active in Treaty of Waitangi claims and was contracted as a laywer to work for a chambers in Auckland, specialising in this work. She was struck in 2012 for falsifying signatures.
In a tribute posted online, Minister of Employment Willie Jackson said she was very sick at that time. It should in no way damage her legacy, which he said was one of courage, brilliance and total commitment to the kaupapa, tinorangitiratanga and the Maori nation.
Mr Jackson said she was one of the most beautiful women of her generation and was blessed with the brains of a top academic professor or lawyer, which she was.
Moana Maniapoto said in a radio interview that Atareta was one of the first Maori voices in the 1980s. She said she spoke out at a time when there weren’t many platforms for Maori to speak and she spoke very strongly and unequivocally.
“She was quite courageous, very beautiful, very regal. A very intelligent woman.”
She remembered Atareta being vilified for her “riff raff” comment.
“It was at a time when Maori were railing against assimilation. Highly respected Maori leaders like former MP Peter Tapsell and Hirini Moko Mead came out in support of the sensibilities behind her comments.”
Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon, who was mayor for most of the time Atareta was on the council, said she was a strong advocate for the East Coast and Maori, and tested council decisions on many occasions to get the best outcome for Tairawhiti.
Atareta Poananga suffered a stroke and had been in hospital for several years after being diagnosed with dementia.
She is survived by her siblings Lee, Kim, Kerry and Ian.