Maori Women's long road to freedom

Fifty years on, the Maori Women's Welfare League has achieved some mighty successes. But the work is not over, writes DITA DE BONI.

The year was 1951, the place, Wellington. In the packed Ngati Poneke Hall, Maori women had travelled from around the country to vote themselves a leader for the critical task of addressing - as a national group - the social and economic problems facing their women and children.

Shedding tears of joy, 56-year-old Whina Cooper - already a revered community leader and electrifying public speaker - was voted to the role of inaugural president of the newly established Te Ropu Wahine Maori Toko I Te Ora (Maori Women's Welfare League).

According to Dame Whina, she later returned to her home in Grey Lynn and knelt before a statue of the Virgin in her sitting room, chanting: "Please, e Maria, mau au e ako ki te korero. Kua oti au te poti e nga wahine o te motu, mau au e awhina" ("Please, Mary, tell me what to say. The women of the nation have made me leader, please help me ... ")

Fifty years later and the legacy left by the devoutly Catholic Dame Whina, as well as other luminaries including Princess Te Puea, Dame Mira Szaszy and Dame Georgina Kirby who have taken leading roles in the league, has ensured its survival through huge social change. Its legion of good works in the community - often unheralded - has given it a gentle but enduring profile which has this week seen its half-century jubilee in New Plymouth attract dignitaries such as Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Sir Paul Reeves, and Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia.

As the country's longest surviving pan-Maori women's organisation, the league boasts almost 3000 members in 150 branches that dot the nation, and some that don't - Australia, England and Hawaii have chapters. It also has dialogue with successive governments over matters that affect Maori such as tourism and housing - a dialogue carried out with politicians from both sides of the spectrum which has not been interrupted throughout its five-decade history.

But the league, which grew out of the Maori War Effort organisation and committees formed after the Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act in 1945, cannot claim to have delivered, unequivocally, the bright future for Maoridom that its foundation members foresaw in 1951.

In the new millennium, the emergence of Kohanga Reo, tribal wealth, entrepreneurship and improved levels of schooling cannot mask the fact that the "gap" between Maori and Pakeha, signalled by almost all social and economic indicators, continues to widen. The statistics are trotted out with dull regularity: Maori are more likely to be unemployed, smokers, "hazardous" drinkers, illiterate and victims of violence.

Maori women have a life expectancy of 71.6 years compared with Pakeha women's 80.6; Maori men a shocking 67.2 years compared with Pakeha man's 75.3.

For the league, which was established to agitate for improved statistics, there is a sense of pride at longevity mixed with a sense of frustration that after 50 years, the same - and in some cases, worse - problems are faced by a growing Maori population.

League national president Jacqui Te Kani says it is not for want of trying.

"One of the reasons we were established was to negate the social ills that were starting to affect our people, in particular women and children. And in the 50s it was brought to the attention of the Government of the day that they needed to apply more severe punishment for violent acts against women and children, for example."

The issues that drove the league's formation and action plan then - housing, health, urbanisation, education and culture - have remained top of the agenda, despite years of good works carried out in areas where the league was strong, particularly rural centres in Taranaki, Far North and Bay of Plenty.

"The league made remits to the Government again throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, but everyone needs to work together on the issue. It's unfortunate that we always wait until it festers like a sore and then everyone tries to run out and do things overnight. Who on Earth would have thought, though, that in the 21st century, these ills would have doubled?"

Maori women, Te Kani says, have borne the brunt of trouble in communities. "Maori women have always had pressure on them because they've been the be-all-and-end-all in the household. Today I would say that Maori women are overburdened with the responsibilities they have to carry."

A volunteer organisation since inception, the league has always been aligned with the Department of Maori Affairs, but has strived to remain independent of politicians, working directly with families in need alongside the New Zealand Maori Council and the National Maori Congress.

But the organisation has commercialised its services to some extent. In 1999, for example, Te Puni Kokiri (Department of Maori Affairs) entered into a contract with the league to provide a national parenting programme to families in Auckland, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay. The league has also had to hive off programmes such as Kohanga Reo and Smokefree to Government departments that it developed itself - a source of disquiet to its president.

"I suppose the difficulty for the league is that it's always been a pilot for programmes," Te Kani says.

"They've always dreamed up the idea and someone else has come along and taken control of it. Retention of the Maori language, for example - we were saying to governments that the language needed to be retained, put into the curriculum, and we worked hard to see Kohanga Reo established, then another national body was set up to run it ... it becomes very difficult when you have to spend a lot of time convincing people that you are past the pilot stage and they should be giving recognition to this organisation for the work it does."

With an emphasis on politicking to achieve input into national initiatives - including the $240 million programme, formerly known as Closing the Gaps, some are unhappy with the way the league has developed. In a book published in 1993 which interviewed 66 foundation members (Te Timatanga Tatau Tatau), some indicated their misgivings at a move away from the family focus.

But Te Kani says the family is still the key. "I think sometimes our older members in part get concerned that we might be moving away from the philosophy that we had set for the organisation. But we've always said that to be able to feed the social arm you've got to generate income - it's just the environment we live in today."

She says that now, membership is evenly split between young and old, with youngsters recruited primarily through high schools in semi-urban and rural areas. Urban women remain hard to capture. But the league continues to be a valuable mouthpiece for any women who do not always have the right to speak in other forums. As foundation member Lucy Puohotaua says in Te Timatanga: "To me the league has made the men recognise that the women have a place in society."

The touchy subject of Maori women's speaking rights is central to the league's appeal, especially to its seniors, according to their reminiscences in Te Timatanga. Maori women, who had become empowered to make community-wide decisions during the Second World War, looked to organisations such as the league to give them a voice when they were marginalised by tribal protocols when their men returned.

Te Kani feels that women have plenty of chances to speak, but says they wanted a say outside their tribal areas.

Women's Refuge chief executive Merepeka Raukawa-Tait says the leadership that has come out of the Maori Women's Welfare League has been of great value to the country and that "a few of the newer organisations, frankly many of those headed up by men, could take a leaf out of the league's book."

"It's been very important - one of the few Maori organisations to stay the distance and be held in high regard by everyone, including decision-makers in Wellington. And the leadership that has been shown in the league has been, in many cases, outstanding."

Raukawa-Tait admits there has been little in the way of controversy in the way the league has attacked the issues (president Te Kani admits the recent high profile of Women's Refuge has put a bomb under the domestic violence issue despite the league's long-standing efforts to address the issue), but says "with the few resources they've had, they've stretched every dollar to the absolute limit and have made a huge difference at the local level - local women working with their communities.

"The women creating the league programmes make them very effective, because they are mothers and grandmothers and understand the dynamics of the Maori family. They bring their own mana to the league, and help all New Zealand women from all walks of life with their work."

For the next 50 years, the focus of the league will be economic self-sufficiency for Maori men and women. As Te Kani points out, a programme run between the league and the Maori Women's Development Corporation to turn product into dollars for small and medium-sized businesses has had a minimal failure rate and has shown the amount of talent "tucked away" in smaller communities.

"What we've found is that there is a [perception] out there amongst people that for getting into business, you have to be a big corporate. But ... in this country, small business can survive. And it's just about kickstarting people - giving them an opportunity."