Titewhai Harawira, the matriarch - mother of eight children, 70 mokopuna and 25 great-great-grandchildren - has spent a lifetime fighting for Māori rights, women’s rights and social justice. Video / Maori Television
This story was first published on February 6, 2022. Titewhai Harawira’s death was announced this morning
Formidable is the word frequently used to describe Titewhai Harawira, the matriarch, who has spent a lifetime fighting for Māori rights, women’s rights and social justice. To her grandchildren, she’s the embodiment of love.
Grandson Tūmamao Harawira, a reporter for Whakaata Māori, says the legacy she has built is a source of pride but what they cherish most is the strong connection she has with each of the grandchildren.
"All 70 of us!
"Love is the biggest gift she's given us. There's a character she plays in public – sharp mind and sharp tongue – but on a very personal level she's the most loving grandmother. Each individual grandchild has a special relationship with her.
Titewhai Harawira leads Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and other dignitaries on to the upper marae at Waitangi in 2020. Photo / John Stone
"Whatever she is to everyone else, she is the embodiment of love to us", he says. "To us, she's just our lovely Māmā".
Titewhai Harawira was interviewed by Tūmamao as part of a Waitangi Day tribute to women, an experience he describes as surreal.
"There's always been a reverence for her as my grandmother so taking off my grandson hat and dealing with her on a professional, equal, footing made for an interesting dynamic."
Titewhai Harawira attributes her fighting spirit to her grandfather, Hone Pani Tamati Waaka Nene Nehua. She and her mother and aunties lived with him on the family farm at Whakapara, north of Whangārei.
She was sent to Queen Victoria Māori School in Parnell, in the footsteps of her mother's and aunties, while the males stayed at home and helped on the farm.
Titewhai Harawira has a strong connection with each of her 70 grandchildren. Photo / Sarah Ivey
It was at Queen Vic that she staged her first protest, against a man teaching the class te reo.
"I thought, hmmm, I did not come to this school to be taught by a man. The only man in my life with any influence was my grandfather.
"So I just refused and I got sent out to stand in a corridor. That went on to polishing the corridor, and then I got sent to polish the chapel in the school."
Expecting to be expelled after the principal wrote home, she was surprised but delighted when her grandfather turned up at the school.
"He said, 'You've got a problem? Well, it's your problem. She has a right to decide who teaches her here. You know we are paying for this.'"
She continued her fight against injustice and eventually became a key protagonist of Ngā Tamatoa. The organisation was set up in the early 1970s and comprised young Māori who campaigned on issues such as the loss of the land and language and breaches of the Treaty.
Ngā Tamatoa was a powerful influence on her.
Tūmamao Harawira says his grandmother’s drive and determination, and that of her famous cohorts Eva Rickard and Whina Cooper, should inspire us all.
"Those of us in Auckland became the engine drivers for a lot of protests, beginning with the language. And when we started out the people against us – openly – were our own people," she says.
She attributes that collective stance to the influence of Christianity – "do things nicely, talk nicely, get nothing and have to keep smiling."
Frustrated, the members took to the streets and generated a petition with about 10,000 signatures to allow the Māori language to be recognised as the first language of the country.
"I'm so glad that everything Ngā Tamatoa fought for is what we have got today: radio, TV, language, fishing, whenua rights … All of those things have come out of struggle.
"The young people need to understand that. You get nothing today by being so polite. You can be polite but you must always be honest."
Tūmamao Harawira reflects on activism becoming a whānau occupation and on the Harawira name becoming synonymous with Waitangi Day protests. The impact on the family has at times been a struggle but resilience has defined them.
Titewhai Harawira is mother to eight children, including Hone Harawira, seen here in 2008. Photo / John Stone
"There have been costs to the family but we've learned to be resilient. The struggle, generations of it, is the wider iwi's as well. Ngāpuhi consider themselves the guardians of the Declaration of Independence 1835 and The Treaty."
