Today's Google Doodle is in celebration of Dame Whina Cooper's birthday. Photo / Google
Today's Google Doodle is in celebration of Dame Whina Cooper's birthday. Photo / Google
Google's doodle is commemorating what would have been prominent Maori activist, Dame Whina Cooper's 120th birthday.
The logo on its search pages, which frequently changes to reflect prominent events, today depicts a painting of the woman who spent much of her life fighting for Maori rights.
In a miniature versionat the top left of its search results page, Dame Whina's head, covered in a red scarf, takes the place of the second "o" in Google.
In a fuller doodle, on its search page, the Maori activist, who organised her first demonstration at 18, can be seen in the place of the second "g" wearing a traditional Maori cloak, Maori people behind her.
According to the Google Doodle page, the image "pays tribute to her most historic achievement, that famous land march".
In 1975, Dame Whina, who was 80 at the time, led the land march from Te Hapua (in the Far North) to Parliament in Wellington and presented a 60,000-signature petition to the then Prime Minister Bill Rowling.
The march, which had about 5000 people by the time it arrived in Wellington, was a protest against the loss of more Maori land and was seen to mark a new era of protest and reform.
Google said its doodler Olivia Huynh took inspiration from photos of the time and the doodle was "highlighting the fact that the march involved people of all ages, all brought together by a passionate and tenacious leader".
