The statue of Dame Whina Cooper commemorates and immortalizes a moment in the activism life of the Māori leader and civil rights activist when she left the settlement of Te Hāpua, holding the hand of her three-year-old mokopuna (granddaughter) Irenee Cooper and started the 1100-kilometer 1975 Māori land hīkoi (march) to Wellington. Dame Whina Cooper ONZ DBE was born in Hōhepine Te Wake in 1895 at Te Karaka, Hokianga. Her father’s community leadership role inspired her to become one herself, and since she was young, Hōhepine refused to let others dictate her life. After graduating high school, she taught in school and then worked at a local store in Whakarapa (later Panguru). In 1917, she met her first husband, Richard Gilbert; they settled in Te Karaka and had three children. After Gilbert died in 1941, Hōhepine married William Cooper and had four children. When Hōhepine moved her family back to Te Karaka in 1920, she took leadership responsibilities within her community and worked with politician Sir Āpirana Ngata on promoting Māori land development programs in the Hokianga. After her second husband died, Cooper moved to Auckland; in 1951, she was nominated the first president of the new Māori Women’s Welfare League, which worked to improve health, housing, education, and welfare for Maori women. In 1957, Dame Whina retired from the league and focused on local activism. In 1975, the nearly 80-year-old Dame Whina was asked by the coalition of Māori groups to lead a protest against the loss of Māori land. During September and October 1975, Dame Whina led the Māori land march from Te Hāpua to Wellington, demanding that property rights be granted as part of the Treaty of Waitangi. In 1983, Dame Whina returned to Panguru; she passed away eleven years later at the age of 98. Dame Whina became known as Te Whaea o te Motu (“Mother of the Nation”) and received recognition and awards for her work during her life and afterward, including being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (1953) and receiving the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal and the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal (1993). The New Zealand Government commissioned Jimi Hills of Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe, and Te Whānau a Upokorehe to create a sculpture in her honor. In front of hundreds of people, including Dame Whina’s family members, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Dame Whina’s son, Joe Cooper, unveiled the statue on February 2nd, 2020. This memorial pays tribute to Dame Whina’s legacy and acknowledges that the journey towards achieving full equality for Māori people is still underway. It is one of the few statues in the country and continent that honor the legacy of an indigenous woman. Read more...