Dame Rangimārie Naida Glavish

Māori leader, activist, and politician

• Born: 1946
• Birthplace: North Island, New Zealand

Also known as: Naida Glavish; Kia Ora Lady

Significance: Dame Rangimārie Naida Glavish is an advocate for Indigenous language and culture in New Zealand. She helped te reo Māori become an official language of her country and succeeded in having health services available in addition to traditional practices and beliefs.

Background

Dame Rangimārie Naida Glavish was born on the go. Her young mother, Nohotakitahi, gave birth to her in the car owned by her father, Frank. Nohotakitahi was Ngāti Whātua Māori, while Frank, who fathered nine children with four women, was a Croatian. Glavish was born as the car was navigating around Kaipara Harbour near Auckland.

Soon her maternal grandmother arrived and took charge of her upbringing. Glavish lived with Ngapeka Teririkore Nahi, whom she called Māmā. Her Croatian grandmother, Marija Glavish, lived across the Kaipara Harbour road. The older women were both widows who spoke very little English and were involved in raising her.

Nahi lived in a whare, or house, of nikau palm. Glavish grew up learning Māori traditions and practices, called tikanga. She learned karakia, or incantations and prayer-seeking guidance and protection. She learned what is tapu, or sacred and not to be touched, and noa, or common. She also learned about the natural world, including how to understand the tide’s effect on fishing and which lunar phases are best for planting. Both te reo Māori and Croatian were her first languages; she learned English at school.

Eventually Glavish’s parents went their separate ways. After Glavish’s mother married and had twin girls, she went to live with them to help care for the infants. She struggled growing up in a White majority community and systems such as public schools. She was expelled from one school and suspended from two others. When she was twelve, she admitted to stealing clothes from a clothesline—though years later, she said that her cousin had committed the crime but begged Glavish to say that she did it. She was placed into state care until she was sixteen and lived with ten families in four years. She returned to Nahi’s care and went to work in a sewing factory. She married and had six children. Once the youngest was in school, she went back to work, this time as a phone operator.

Life’s Work

Glavish learned a philosophy from Nahi: If you see something wrong, correct it, because if you do not, you will become like it. She got a job working for the post office, which operated the toll phone system, in 1975, about three years after Nahi’s death. She worked in Helensville and answered with “Kia ora,” the Māori greeting. She was promoted to the Auckland offices in 1982. A supervisor berated her for using the greeting instead of saying “good morning,” “good afternoon,” or “good evening.” However, she refused to budge. She met author and Māori activist Professor Ranginui Walker, chair of the Auckland District Māori Council, and recounted her struggles with the toll department. Walker told her that punishing her for using an Indigenous greeting was racist, and he would help her. He contacted the chair of the New Zealand Māori Council. Once a newspaper carried a story about her fight, the toll line phones rang constantly as people called asking to speak to the Kia Ora Lady. Prime Minister Rob Muldoon went on the record saying that he supported her. Before long, the supervisor was demoted, and Glavish was promoted to international tolls, where she greeted callers, “Kia ora, Aotearoa.”

Glavish was one of forty fluent speakers of te reo Māori selected to learn how to teach the language in schools. She attended the Auckland Teachers’ Training College. She insisted to the principal of her first school, Henderson High, that her students had to volunteer to attend her class and asked to have about a dozen students that first year but wound up with thirty-seven. She taught for three years.

Glavish also advocated for Māori people in health care. She served as the chief adviser on tikanga for the Waitematā and Auckland district health boards. Through her work, culturally sensitive practices and accommodations were added such as whānau rooms for grieving families at hospitals. Whānau, or extended family, typically provide emotional and practical support such as advocacy and translation services for hospitalized members.

From 2013 to 2015, Glavish was president of the Māori Party. She also served as chair of Te Runanga o Ngāti Whātua, the Māori Trust Board.

Impact

Glavish’s kia ora fight drew national attention to Indigenous rights and culture. Schools demanded that the Māori language be used and encouraged. Airline pilots addressed passengers with “Kia ora, this is Captain …,” and the University of Auckland newspaper changed its name to Kia Ora. In 2011 Glavish was appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and the community. She was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018.

Personal Life

Glavish is the mother of three daughters and two sons as well as a daughter who died in an accident. She married when she was seventeen and later separated.

Bibliography

“Dame Naida Glavish.” New Zealand Government, teara.govt.nz/en/te-tai/te-mana-o-te-reo-maori-naida-glavish. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Hayden, Leonie. “The Kia Ora Lady: Dame Rangimārie Naida Glavish in Her Own Words.” The Spinoff, 7 Aug. 2019, thespinoff.co.nz/atea/07-08-2019/the-kia-ora-lady-dame-rangimarie-naida-glavish-in-her-own-words. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Misa, Tapu. “Naida Glavish and the Fight for a Māori Voice That Started with ‘Kia Ora.’” New Zealand Herald, 6 Mar. 2-19, www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/naida-glavish-and-the-fight-for-a-maori-voice-that-started-with-kia-ora/OSSGWWVKRCE3H3EZH67Q3MPTZE/. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Morey, Kelly Ana. “At Home with Dame Naida Glavish: The Woman Who Refused to Say ‘Hello.’” Stuff, 17 Feb. 2018, stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/101481608/at-home-with-dame-naida-glavish-the-woman-who-refused-to-say-hello. Accessed 3 July 2023.

“Trailblazers: Dame Rangimarie Naida Glavish.” New Zealand Herald, 16 Sept. 2018, www.nzherald.co.nz/trailblazers/news/trailblazers-dame-rangimarie-naida-glavish/GE6KR2IEE5AS6F425GFIXEGGVE/. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Tyson, Jessica. “Dame Naida Glavish: The Country Made ‘Kia Ora’ Acceptable.” Te Ao Māori News, 25 Jan. 2022, www.teaomaori.news/dame-naida-glavish-country-made-kia-ora-acceptable. Accessed 3 July 2023.