- Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and senior government ministers are paying respects to Dame Tariana Turia at Whangaehu Marae today.
- Ngai Tahu and Ngati Kahungunu iwi, along with Hīkoi mō te Tiriti organisers, will be welcomed at 9am.
- Turia, known for her split from Labour over the Foreshore and Seabed Act, inspired Māori advocacy.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and senior government ministers have arrived to pay their respects to Dame Tariana Turia who died on Friday, aged 80.
Nicola Willis, Tama Potaka, Louise Upton, Mark Mitchell and former National leader Sir Bill English will this afternoon join the Labour Party, the New Zealand Police and the National Health Coalition at Whangaehu Marae.
Entering day three of mourning the matriarch of the Māori Party, at 9am, Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kahungunu iwi alongside Hīkoi mō te Tiriti organisers will be welcomed on to the marae, based a few kilometres outside Whanganui, before the government pōwhiri at 2pm.
The Prime Minister is expected to speak, as well as NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones on behalf of the Government. Willie Jackson and Chris Hipkins alongside Labour Party kaumatua Ken Kennedy will also be given the opportunity to speak.
The Greens and Te Pāti Māori paid their respects over the weekend.
Eru Kapa-Kingi, one of the organisers of November’s Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, said he and fellow organisers would be congregating at the marae gates ahead of this morning’s pōwhiri.
Anyone else wanting to pay their respects should join them, he said.
“We put out a social media announcement ... to put the tonu out there for anyone else who might be looking for an opportunity or an iwi to join to honour whaea Tariana as well as the kaupapa she carried.”
November’s hīkoi in opposition to Act’s Treaty Principles Bill, which culminated in 40,000 people descending on Parliament, was inspired by Turia’s advocacy for Māori rights, Kapa-Kingi said.
Whānau Ora commissioning agency chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said: “Maoridom has lost one of its most fierce, passionate leaders”.
Raukawa-Tait told Tim Beveridge on Newstalk ZB’s Summer Breakfast show that Turia’s death will leave a significant gap.
“Not only for Māori and not only for our young people but also for Aotearoa,” she said.
Raukawa-Tait said Turia was instrumental in overseeing the birth of Whānau Ora and she will be “missed dearly”.
“She was a woman of courage, she was visionary, she believed that New Zealand could to better particularly for Māori and she gave people hope,” she said.
“She was adamant that we must all reach our potential.”
Speaking about her time in parliament, Raukawa-Tait said Turia understood that “true leadership is not a popularity contest”.
She described a key moment in Turia’s career as when she crossed the floor of the debating chamber to vote against the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
“That was a Tariana moment … there comes a time when you do have to take a stand and that was her moment.”
Additional reporting Newstalk ZB and RNZ
