Meri Te Tai Mangakahia

New Zealand suffragist

• Born: May 22, 1868
• Birthplace: Whakarapa, New Zealand
• Died: October 10, 1920
• Place of death: Panguru, New Zealand

Though details of her life are little known, Mangakahia is an iconoic figure in women’s rights in New Zealand, where she voiced the demands of Maori women to vote and run for office. Her political involvement and writings expressed Maori women’s interest in land and government reforms to improve conditions for Maoris in New Zealand.

Early Life

Meri Te Tai Mangakahia (MEH-dih Teh Tie MAH-nuh-KUH-Hih-Uh) was born near Hokianga Harbour on New Zealand’s North Island. Maori kinsmen respected her father, Re Te Tai, who later served as tribal chief of Te Rarawa in the Hokianga district. Mangakahia’s mother, Hana Tera, had been previously married. Mangakahia was her first child with Re Te Tai.

Few records exist to document Mangakahia’s childhood. However, her experiences were probably typical of those of most nineteenth century Maori children. In the primarily rural society in which she lived, Maori elders would have expected her to perform chores to help members of her immediate and extended families and her community. Maoris honored the connections among the descendants of the first Polynesians who settled New Zealand. They identified their tribes (iwi) by their immigrant ancestors’ names. Maori tribes sometimes fought one another, but they also resolved differences in social gatherings and made alliances in legal matters. Most male Maoris revered women, including them in community decisions and respecting their authority.

As a child, Mangakahia probably was aware of her people’s history and the land conflicts between Maoris and British settlers. When Europeans, whom the Maori called Pâkehâ, began settling New Zealand during the early nineteenth century, they wanted to buy Maori lands. In 1840, Maoris, including women, and Pâkehâ signed the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty made them British subjects, recognized their independence, and assured them that their lands were secure. However, imprecise translations of the treaty later caused misinterpretations.

The 1852 New Zealand Constitution Act allowed male property owners of all ethnicities to vote for members of the colonial legislature. The expanding Pâkehâ population provoked conflicts when settlers seized Maori land. Maori men and women fought in Land Wars. The 1865 Native Land Act provided a forum, the Native Land Court, for Maoris, including women, to make legal claims to confiscated lands. The court oversaw land sales and leases. Maoris petitioned the British government to honor the 1840 treaty and improve land legislation by allowing them to serve in the colonial legislature. The 1867 Maori Representation Act created four Maori parliamentary positions for men only.

The Maori population dropped from more than 100,000 people in 1840 to approximately 43,000 people during the 1890’s. European settlers, who numbered 625,500 in 1890, encouraged assimilation. Many Maoris accepted some European practices, especially educational opportunities. Assured free schooling, Maori students learned about government protocol, which helped tribal land petitions. Mangakahia, who was growing up through this period, attended school at Auckland’s St. Mary’s Convent.

Life’s Work

During the early 1890’s, Mangakahia married a widower named Hamiora Mangakahia, who had already been married twice. She then lived with her husband on a property that he owned at Whangapoua on the North Island’s Coromandel Peninsula. Mangakahia tended her husband’s children and gave birth to four more of her own.

Mangakahia’s marriage gave her entry in Maori political forums. Her husband had served as an assessor in the Native Land Court and was active in politics, dedicating his career to protecting Maori lands. Frustrated by unchanging and restrictive British land policies and inadequate representation in parliament, Maori tribal representatives, including Mangakahia’s husband, established a separate Maori parliament in 1892 to achieve self-determination and demand promised treaty rights. They named their autonomous government Te Kotahitanga (union). Representatives selected Mangakahia’s husband as the parliament’s first premier. British law required the transfer of married women’s land to their husbands, but Mangakahia and most Maori women wanted to regain control of property rights and have a voice in political decisions. They supported Te Kotahitanga in addition to woman suffrage efforts and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Mangakahia traveled to Waipatu on Hawke’s Bay with her husband for the 1893 meeting of Te Kotahitanga. Probably because of the official status of Mangakahia’s husband, other women attending the meeting asked her to represent them. On May 18, 1893, she gave the women’s petition to the speaker of Te Kotahitanga’s lower house, asking him to request representatives to consider allowing women to vote for future assembly members. Mangakahia then became the first woman to speak before the Maori parliament when she was asked to elaborate on the contents of the petition.

During her speech, Mangakahia boldly demanded that Maori women be given both voting rights for and the right to become members of parliament. Her demands went beyond those of other contemporary suffragists in New Zealand and internationally. Mangakahia asserted that Maori women deserved to have those rights because they owned, inherited, and managed property according to long-established Maori customs, and they also paid land taxes. She argued that many women were more capable land managers than men. She also recommended that if women were to appeal Maori land issues to Great Britain’s Queen Victoria, the queen—as a woman—might be more receptive to the appeal than she would be to male chiefs.

Representatives at the meeting liked Mangakahia’s speech, but Akenehi Tomoana, whose husband, Henare Tomoana, was a political rival, pressured the group to delay action. Mangakahia argued that the group’s first priority should be to secure parliamentary recognition of Te Kotahitanga and not women’s rights. The male representatives postponed discussion at that conference, despite promises to consider Mangahakia’s proposals, which were recorded in the proceedings of the Maori parliament. Individual Maori tribes selected women to address the parliament at later sessions.

While women were becoming increasingly involved in the Maori parliament, New Zealand’s official parliament still forbade women even to speak in its sessions. That situation suddenly changed in September, 1893, when the governor granted all New Zealand women voting rights. Maori women became able to vote on either Maori rolls or European rolls, if they owned property worth specified amounts. Maori women then began establishing committees to discuss such social and political issues as alcoholism, marital abuse, and the preservation of Maori women’s skills and traditions. Te Kotahitanga finally approved Mangakahia’s ideas in 1897.

Details about Mangakahia’s life after she addressed Te Kotahitanga in 1893 are vague. She probably accompanied her husband as he pursued political activities and belonged to women’s committees to discuss Maori and national politics and raise money for parliamentary expenses. Mangakahia edited the women’s column in the newspaper Te Tiupiri (the jubilee) with Niniwa i te Rangi, the Maori parliament’s record keeper. They encouraged women representing all the Maori tribes to interact and communicate ideas about individual and community concerns. Mangakahia discussed women’s issues and sought tolerance and equality for both Maoris and women generally. Voting records for the 1919 election include her name, but she probably voted prior to that.

Mangakahia supported her husband when he endured the false accusations of political foes that he mishandled parliamentary funds. He continued to attend meetings despite those conflicts and the fact that his poor health confined him to a wheelchair. On June 4, 1918, he died at Whangapoua. As his estate executor and trustee, Mangakahia was permitted to reside on the Whangapoua property that her children inherited. Instead, she moved to live with relatives on family property at Panguru near her birthplace. After suffering from severe influenza, she died there on October 10, 1920.

Significance

Mangakahia spoke on behalf of most Maori women when she demanded the right to vote and choose political representation. Her efforts mobilized women to seek control of their lives and form groups to achieve social improvement. She rallied Maoris to persevere despite intimidation and discouragement and inspired and unified women in her generation and its successors.

In 1919, New Zealand’s parliament passed the Women’s Parliamentary Rights Act, which made all New Zealand women eligible for election to the national parliament. Finally, in 1935, a Maori woman named Rehutai Maihi campaigned to represent the Northern Maori district; however, she lost because Maori elders were unsupportive of women politicians. In 1949, Iriaka Ratana won the Western Maori position and served in parliament for twenty years. Increasing numbers of Maori women obtained employment in parliamentary and governmental positions, and political activists have studied Mangakahia’s ideas and tactics to resolve modern issues.

Mangakahia’s leadership secured respect from both Maori and white suffragists. During the 1993 New Zealand woman suffrage centennial, Mangakahia was included with other suffrage pioneers in the bronze Kate Sheppard National Memorial to woman suffrage dedicated at Christchurch. At the 2003 Suffrage Day, speakers praised Mangakahia, stressing how she had influenced the success of 1893 suffrage legislation for all New Zealand women.

Bibliography

Ballara, Angela. “Wahine Rangatira: Maori Women of Rank and Their Role in the Women’s Kotahitanga Movement of the 1890’s.” New Zealand Journal of History 27, no. 2 (October, 1993): 127-139. Discusses differences between the motivations of Maori and European suffragists—their motivations, methods, and political aspirations.

Brooking, Tom. The History of New Zealand. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Useful history that balances information about Maoris and Europeans, examining land and suffrage topics.

Grimshaw, Patricia. Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand. 2d ed. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press, 1987. Comprehensive account that describes the contributions of Maori women to achieve voting rights for both Maoris and all women in New Zealand.

Macdonald, Carolyn, Merimeri Penfold, and Bridget Williams, eds. The Book of New Zealand Women. Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books, 1991. Profiles Mangakahia and other notable Maori women and suffragists. Includes a reproducton of the page from the parliamentary proceedings of her speech in Maori.

Rei, Tania. Mâori Women and the Vote. Wellington, New Zealand: Huia Publishers, 1993. Excellent overview of Maori women’s political activity published for the suffrage centennial. Features Mangakahia’s portrait on the cover.

Walker, Ranginui. Struggle Without End (Ka whawhai tonu matou). Rev. ed. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin, 2004. A Maori history of New Zealand, stressing the Maoris’ ongoing efforts to maintain secure political rights and protect their distinct cultural identity.

Williams, John A. Politics of the New Zealand Maori: Protest and Cooperation, 1891-1909. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969. Examines the political leadership of Mangkahari’s husband, especially his efforts to protect Maori lands.