Queen's Birthday Honours: Nora Tawhi Rameka

Nora Rameka, MNZM, doesn't give up. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Queens Birthday Honours List

Nora Tawhi Rameka has been named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for a lifetime working for the betterment of her people, especially in the fields of housing and education.

The 72-year-old from Takou Bay, north of the Bay of Islands, said she was "blown away" by the honour, although she had never sought recognition or reward. "What has driven me is we've got to build a better future for future generations. You just do what you've got to do."

Te Kao-born Mrs Rameka (Ngati Rehia, Ngati Kuri, Ngati Kaitangata) felt especially honoured when she saw the list of people who had nominated her, all people she had worked with for many years.

One of her strengths is a refusal to give in. "A thing about Maori communities is we tend to give up when someone says, 'It's not going to happen'. I'm not like that. You don't win them all, but sometimes you take big steps."

Her wins include establishing papakainga (housing on Maori land) in the Ngati Rehia rohe (tribal area). When she and her husband of 54 years, Waata Rameka, came home to Takou Bay, there was nothing but gorse. The first kaumatua flats opened in 1989; today there are 18 homes and more than 50 people.

She also led the restoration of historic Whetu Marama Marae and the construction of a public campground at Takou Bay.

Education, and being a good role model for her mokopuna, is another priority. Although she left school young and first worked as an orchard labourer, once her children had grown up she took up learning again as an adult student. Later she helped establish Te Reo Te Taitokerau, the Ministry of Education's Ngapuhi education partner, and a wananga in Kerikeri for the education of Maori in the Bay of Islands. Other education roles include being a special adviser on Maori Education at Waikato University.

She initiated the Ngati Rehia runanga (council) and is the hapu's spokesperson on Treaty issues.

The great-grandmother also made a significant contribution to the multimillion-dollar Heritage Bypass project to protect two of New Zealand's oldest buildings, Kemp House and the Stone Store, and helped gain historic places protection for Kerikeri's Kororipo Pa.

More recently Mrs Rameka has helped bring low-cost GP services to Waipapa. She is now working with artist Chris Booth on a climate-change-themed sculpture at Bulls Gorge.

It would be educational and fulfil the wishes of "the old people" who wanted something to mark the entrance to Kerikeri, she said.

She urged others not to give up their dreams, no matter how often someone said it was impossible.

"When I first tried to bring something to Takou, when there was nothing, not even a road, and we had no money, people thought I was crazy. But when things look impossible, there is always a way."