Māori Party's Te Tai Tokerau candidate Mariameno Kapa-Kingi launches campaign

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi is the Māori Party's candidate for Te Tai Tokerau electorate in September's general election.

The Māori Party will launch the campaign of its Te Tai Tokerau candidate in Whangārei this week.

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi is the party's Te Tai Tokerau electorate candidate in September's general election and her campaign will be launched on Friday at Te Kauta, in Lower Dent St, from 5.30pm-6.30pm.

Also there will be the party's Tamaki Makaurau candidate and former MP John Tamihere, and party president Che Adams.

Kapa-Kingi said she is Te Tai Tokerau through and through and makes no apology for that.

While born and raised in the north, and having spent most of her professional life there working for various iwi constituencies, she has also worked in Māori health spaces across the motu.

She has traversed the mental health space, with specific regard to young Māori who suffer from mental illness and through all of her mahi she has gained a wealth of experience and a rich appreciation for Māori governance in working for her own iwi, as well as te iwi Māori whānui.

Kapa-Kingi helped to drive Kāinga Ora, an initiative focused on empowering whānau to secure healthy homes. And more recently, she has been involved in securing temporary housing for whānau Māori in the north who have found themselves in desperate situations, with the ultimate goal of providing proper and permanent housing.

A mother of triplets and a daughter, Kapa-Kingi said she draws strength from her past, present and future whakapapa, and puts whānau at the centre of everything she does.

She whakapapas to Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa.