Māori Sporting legend Jane Te Hira has died aged 95. Photo / Supplied
One of the country’s greatest Māori wāhine athletes, who represented New Zealand in three sports, Jane Te Hira ONZM, has died. She was 95.
Te Hira, who celebrated her 95th birthday a fortnight ago, died peacefully in her sleep at the Glenburn Rest Home in New Lynn, Auckland this morning. She represented New Zealand at basketball, softball, hockey and coached rugby in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Te Hira whānau said Te Hira lived a full life and was much loved by her children and grandchildren.
“She led a very full and active life and when you talk sports was 50 years ahead of her time,” the whānau said.
“For her to represent three sports over multiple years wasn’t acknowledged back then, and for it to be a Māori and a wāhine was unheard of. She was the country’s first triple athlete over multiple years.
“We were disappointed her recognition wasn’t acknowledged back then and took so long to be but our whānau are glad it was eventually recognised.”
Two years ago Te Hira, at 93, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for a lifetime of service to sport at an awards ceremony at Government House. That bought much joy to her whānau for her rightful recognition.
But sports ran deep in her whānau with brother Henry Maxwell a Kiwi rugby league rep and sister Sylvia who represented Australia in basketball and athletics.
Te Hira’s daughter, Tui Tait - mother of Tall Black Lyndsay, said her mum overcome a number of obstacles to play sports and remembers as a kid being dragged from one field to the next, to the courts.
One of five children born to Ameria (nee Tepana) from Kaikohe and shearer Theodore Ernest Maxwell (originally from Germany), her siblings were Theodore, Mary, Sylvia and Henry. Sylvia, Henry and Theodore went on to be outstanding sports people in their own rights.
Educated at Maungatapere Primary School (12km out of Whangarei) Te Hira remembered making their own hockey sticks from manuka branches. The whānau moved to Whatatere where Jane was home-schooled.
Soon after World War II started, the whānau moved to Auckland when Te Hira was about 14.
They attended sport and cultural gatherings at the Māori Community Centre at Victoria Park and Te Hira became involved with basketball, hockey and softball under guidance of Tu and May Smith, an American who taught them the basics of softball.
Te Hira once recalled at Victoria Park, “The Aotearoa & Akarana men were battling away in their game of rugby, when the women on the sideline still in their basketball gear, decided to play each other in rugby when the men had finished, [Jane], along with the likes of Violet Harrison and May Smith took on Aotearoa and beat them, with Violet kicking the winning conversion.”
Te Hira soon made her mark on the sports fields of Aotearoa and a quote from ‘Te Ao hou’ – “One of the country’s best all-round women athletes for 1953 was a young Māori girl from Auckland, Miss Janie Maxwell. We are told that in the National Hockey Tournament this year she displayed outstanding ability. We are told also, from a most authoritative source that if the New Zealand team which is at present in England, had been chosen this year instead of at the end of last season, she would have had every chance of being included. Miss Maxwell played for North Island in the Inter-Island fixture at the end of the tournament. Her ability, however, does not end with hockey, as the following week saw her at Palmerston North with the Auckland Indoor Basketball representatives, who beat the favoured Wellington side to win the New Zealand title. Janie was selected for the North Island team to play South Island, and also won a place in the New Zealand team which played the Rest. This was a very great honour for a young player, and we wish her every success for the future.”
History was made when she became the first NZ women to represent Aotearoa in three sports – indoor basketball, hockey and softball.
She is survived by her five children – Moana, Tui, Reo, Michael and Wana and her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Te Hira will lie at Hoani Waititi Marae, West Auckland on Wednesday, July 26 and then be taken for cremation on Friday, July 28.