Inez Kingi

Health advocate

• Born: January 1, 1931
• Birthplace: Ōhinemutu. New Zealand
• Died: July 27, 2022
• Place of death: Ōhinemutu. New Zealand

Also known as: Inez Haereata Kingi

Significance: After becoming one of the first Māori dental nurses, Inez Kingi dedicated her life to improving the health of the Māori people, especially women and children. She helped establish several important health care centers in New Zealand, including a successful substance abuse treatment center. Kingi also served on the boards of several health organizations and as an adviser for the government health service.

Background

On January 1, 1931, Kingi was born Inez Hayward in the Māori village at Ōhinemutu, a suburb of the New Zealand city of Rotorua. She was the youngest of twelve children born to an English father and a mother from the Māori tribe Ngāti Whakaue. She attended the public primary and high schools at Rotorua.

Kingi attended Wellington Dental School, where she received the director’s medal for outstanding excellence at her 1952 graduation. She married in 1955 and had four children. Kingi completed her compulsory government service at Te Araroa, a small Māori community in the Gisborne Region of the North Island.

Life’s Work

Kingi began her career as a school dental nurse at Glenholme Primary School before moving to a job at her former elementary school, Rotorua Primary. After a time, she took a position at Sunset Intermediate School. It was during this phase of her career that Kingi developed her strong focus on the medical and dental needs of Māori women and children. She became involved with the Māori Women’s Health League, eventually serving as its president, and with the league’s assistance began establishing the Tunohopu Health Centre. The center opened in 1986 in her hometown on land owned by her husband, who became its first administrator. The center provided both Western medical care and traditional Māori healing in one facility.

In the mid-1980s, national economic conditions led to widespread layoffs in New Zealand. Kingi, who had once been laid off from a government job advising about Māori relations, understood the challenges they faced. She also recognized that many were resorting to substance abuse to deal with their joblessness. She helped found Te Utuhina Manaakitanga Trust, which became a very successful drug and alcohol treatment center that continued to serve the community into the twenty-first century.

Kingi continued to expand her efforts to improve health care in New Zealand throughout the 1990s. She helped establish Tipu Ora Health Centre, also in her hometown, to provide health care services for mothers and children. The two health centers in Ōhinemutu were inspired by Robina Cameron, a Scottish nurse who went to New Zealand in the 1930s and helped establish the Māori Women’s Health League. Cameron’s passion for reducing maternal death in childbirth and infant mortality inspired Kingi, who spent much of her career forging relationships with government officials who could help with the resources needed to address these problems. This work culminated in the building of the Tipu Ora Health Centre.

Also in the 1990s, Kingi helped to found Te Ao Marama Māori Dental Association to help address the lack of dentists to serve the Māori population. Only three Māori dentists were operating at the time the association was formed. As founding chair of the dental association, Kingi created Hei Oranga Niho mo te Iwi Māori, a program under which fifth-year dental students provided free dental care to the Māori community.

During her long career, Kingi also served on several boards and in an advisory capacity on the health needs of the Māori people. Some of these roles included time as a bicultural adviser to the health department, service with the Auckland Medical School pre-selection committee, and chairing the Māori Health Workforce committee. She also served on several school and recreational boards in Rotorua.

Throughout her career, Kingi often worked with her husband by her side. They jointly received several awards. Kingi’s husband died in 2017. Kingi died on July 27, 2022, in a residential home where she had lived for a decade. She had dementia in her later years. Her death was acknowledged in the Australian Parliament, and she was buried alongside her husband in the Kauae Cemetery in Ōhinemutu.

Impact

Kingi established several health care organizations to tend to the physical and dental health needs of New Zealanders, especially the Indigenous Māori. These included the Tūnohopū Marae health center; the Te Utuhina Manaakitanga Trust, which provides addiction services; the Tipu Ora Health Centre for maternal and child services; and the Te Ao Marama Māori Dental Association to increase the number of dentists serving the Māori community. Her efforts were recognized with several awards, including the 1993 New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal, appointment as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit at the 2000 New Year Honours, and appointment in 2008 as Companion of the Queen’s Service Order. Kingi’s work was immortalized in a biography written by her husband in 2012 entitled The Life & Times of Inez Haereata Kingi. Radio New Zealand dubbed her “Rotorua’s queen of Māori health.”

Personal Life

She married Pihopa Kingi, who was born and raised in her home village, on February 10, 1955, in St. Faith Church in Ōhinemutu. The couple had three sons and a daughter.

Bibliography

“Inez Haereata Kingi Who Pushed for Better Health Services for Māori Dies.” Radio New Zealand, 28 July 2022, www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/471788/inez-haereata-kingi-who-pushed-for-better-health-services-for-maori-dies. Accessed 3 July 2023.

“Inez Kingi MNZM, QSO, Rotorua’s Queen of Maori Health.” He Pataka Purakau Digital Storehouse, www.gtas.nz/inez-kingi. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Kingi, Pihopa. The Life and Times of Inez Haereata Kingi, 2013, natlib.govt.nz/records/32235532. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Mikiha, Kelly. “Obituary: Visionary Māori Health Leader Inez Kingi from Rotorua Dies.” New Zealand Herald, 28 July 2022, www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/obituary-visionary-maori-health-leader-inez-kingi-from-rotorua-dies/VVCUKXPFSAIHMDR6PC5CMN44FU/. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Nicholas, Jill. “Our People: Inez Kingi.” Rotorua Daily Post, 27 July 2013, www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/our-people-inez-kingi/6U2S43OX7ACXAI5ED4Q4HGB77U/. Accessed 3 July 2023.

“Te Aō Marama—New Zealand Māori Dental Association.” Dental Council Te Kaunihera Tiaki Niho, dcnz.org.nz/resources-and-publications/publications/newsletters/view/16?article=8. Accessed 3 July 2023.

“Te Arawa Health Champion Inez Kingi Dies.” Waatea News, 29 July 2022, waateanews.com/2022/07/29/te-arawa-health-champion-inez-kingi-dies/. Accessed 3 July 2023.