Huia's contributions to the community are legion

Huia Henere (with bag) is back on her feet and enjoying time with Piki George and tamariki at Te Rangahaua Te Kohanga Reo. Photo/Stuart Munro

Huia Rewiti Henere turned 80 last month and celebrated with friends and whanau at Wanganui Racecourse.

Mrs Henere has lived in Wanganui since 1959 when she moved here with her first husband Tuhinga Reweti.

"I'm not originally from here and I know to go safely when entering someone else's region," says Mrs Henere.

Although she wasn't born in the region, Mrs Henere's contributions to the community here are legion.

She opened the first Wanganui Kohanga Reo - Te Heti Te Kohanga Reo in Castlecliff in 1983 and her subsequent efforts have seen the building of pensioner housing and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Tupoho.

"I thought we needed to set up a place for a school so the Kohanga Reo children would have somewhere to carry on to.

"It's a waste of time to teach the children the Maori language and then send them to a mainstream school."

Mrs Henere said some of the children who attended Te Heti Te Kohanga Reo have become Kohanga Reo teachers themselves. "Others are now police officers or lawyers and many have gone on to do some really interesting work and study."

Huia Aupouri was born in Reporua in 1934, the eighth child in a family of 13 she is Ngati Porou and Ngati Rangi is her sub-tribe. Her father worked for Liberal Party MP James Caroll, known to Maori as Timi Kara.

Growing up in Tokomaru Bay and later in Ruatorea, young Huia enjoyed the freedom of swimming without the need for "flash" bathing costumes and she attended the Reporua Native school. She would receive the Lady Ngata scholarship to attend Hukarere Maori Girls' College for two years.

After school she decided to study nursing and went to Te Puia Springs Hospital to start her nursing career. "I decided to enrol in the army and trained at Waiouru Military Camp for three months then went down to Burnham Camp. "... when I arrived there were no sick patients as they were all fit soldiers.

"All the nurses were doing was cleaning and housework and I didn't enjoy, that so I transferred into administration."

Huia would become an administrator for the 1st squadron of the SAS and worked in the role until she married navy officer Tuhinga Reweti in 1958.

"He came from Ngapuhi, from Helensville ..."

The couple settled in Wanganui and had five children - four sons and one daughter.

Tuhinga Reweti died in 1997 and Huia later married Dave Henere, a singer and songwriter who was also a painter and created the mural on the kohanga wall. "He passed away, that's enough; I don't have the funds to bury another husband."

After his death, Mrs Henere was diagnosed with a spinal tumour and experienced paralysis after it was removed. "I was in a wheelchair for seven months and a couple of doctors told me it would be permanent, but the surgeon said I could stay in it or make the effort to walk again, and that's what I did."

Mrs Henare now tends her vegetable garden and attends the gym and the pool, although she is still called upon to lend her experience and expertise to the community. "My daughter bought me a ticket for a cruise as a birthday present. It leaves in November. I didn't want to go on my own, so my friend Piki George is coming with me."