The Planets Have Aligned and it’s Time For a Change.
Updated: Sep 19
19th September, 2026.
Tēna Koutou Followers.
There have been some updates to our platforms and organisation at Mana Wāhine Kōrero.
As of today, our live platforms are here on our website and our Substack, and if you have www.mwk.co.nz saved, that redirects to us as well.
Koha/Donations can be now made through our website form or by internet banking.
To buy an MWK T-shirt, or any beautiful design, we’re proud to work with the SecretT Society, and orders can be placed through our website.
Media and general enquiries should be directed to admin@mwk.nz.
Our former social media platforms (@MKorero on X, Mana Wāhine Kōrero on Facebook, and @manawahinekorero9534 on YouTube) are now MWK Australia, and we will be working independently of one another. Our members’ individual social media platforms are of course still active, however, and we will update you all here and on our website if we decide to revamp our group social media as well.
Mana Wāhine Kōrero are very proud of all that has been achieved collaboratively for wāhine over the last 5 years, with much dedication from both sides of the ditch. We have all worked tirelessly trying to stop the takeover of foreign ideologies harming our tamariki, rangatahi and whanau.
We are grateful to and humbled by the volunteers, subscribers, friends and other groups who stand beside us. It is you who ensure we can continue to organise, speak out and defend the rights of all women, children, and our culture.
We are also excited and hopeful about the future here in New Zealand, with the election just around the corner and change in the air. What better tohu do we need for a new beginning than the 133rd anniversary of being the first country in the world to extend women the vote - both Māori and European wāhine together - and the inaugural raising of the NZ Women’s Suffrage flag at Parliament on Thursday?! Our deepest respect to Katrina Biggs for her years-long campaign to make this happen for New Zealand wāhine.
With that, I would like to now share with you a letter that we recently came across in the Auckland Museum National Archives.
It is 100 years old, handwritten, and relates a story I have also told in our time (see link below) of a famous Māori wāhine, whose history has been getting a rewrite from gender ideologues who want to use her legend as evidence for ‘gender’ in pre-colonial Te Ao Māori. They say she actually had a man’s gender identity wrongly trapped in her female body, and that’s why she said and did the things she did.
But this is not true, and it is destructive to our histories, our Reo and our wāhine to say that it is. Her story is one of a wāhine who was powerful, determined and strong, and who became a leader in her own right, without being in any way a man. Whakatane is named in her memory, as is a Labour Party electorate stronghold you will all recognise, though we consider that some of the recent contemporary leaders who have been elected there trample her whenua with no mana at all. I wrote about this fresh attempt to impose foreign ideas upon us here, for those interested.
We have also provided a link to the story as told by her descendants (see references), and maintain that for the truest accounts of Māori stories, the Iwi and Hapu who whakapapa to the Tūpuna described are the best source. But it was nevertheless a bright moment to hear another voice from the past in the library, corroborating what we have been saying.
The letter we called up in the National Archive was handwritten by George Samuel Graham in 1931. Mr. Graham wrote, collected, translated, published, donated and was passionate about preserving what he could of Māori history, language and culture throughout his life, so that we might read it and know.
Today, the attitudes and factual errors of his time and scholarly contemporaries stand out, as does the language of the era regarding wāhine Māori. He is not a fashionable reference anymore, though his work contributed greatly to our body of written knowledge from earlier times, and mistakes and older perspectives are instructive in themselves - but the underlying truths are still there to be seen, and to err is to be human, and Mr. Graham’s writing and own personal story is unmistakably that of a man who cared for truth and history and for his friends and relations among Māori.
Wāhine who were strong and brave were not considered men or ‘manly’, even when they took on tasks traditionally performed by men. They were elevated to leadership roles, respected, and remembered in our stories as wāhine toa, and as Tipuna. Wāhine had the right to complain if their husbands mistreated them, and their fathers and whānau would protect them, or attack those who hurt and disrespected them. We were allowed to choose our partners, and to leave them, and we were admired for physical prowess and skill. We were never men when we did these things.
We have transcribed Mr. Graham’s letter here for you exactly as written to the best of our ability. The reference guide for where to read the original is at the bottom of this post, as well as the story as told by her descendants, who know it best.
You may, as New Zealanders, ponder the ironies of the story and its locations, author intent, and relevance to our current situation, and find yourselves inspired to write Letters to the Editor of your own.
Mauri Ora!
Di Landy, Chairwoman, Mana Wāhine Kōrero.
“The History of Wairaka (Mt. Albert).
And that Chieftainess after whom Mt. Albert (Wairaka) was named.”
21/03/1931
The Editor
Herald
Auckland
“Dear Sir,
A controversy proceeds concerning this now well-known place name, bestowed in Māori times upon the hill fort we now know more familiarly as Mt. Albert. The historical origin of the name is a matter of common knowledge with the Māori people - and has at times been detailed in your columns.
However the following abstract narrative should help to acquaint those interested - and involving perhaps some extraneous details, nevertheless also of equal interest to your readers.
[This chapter of Māori history concerns the “Mataatua” immigrant Canoe (which arrived here just prior to the other historic canoes of “The Fleet” of about 1350 AD), from Hawaiiki - Tawhitianui usually admitted now as identical with Tahiti.]
Toroa was the commander of that canoe, and he had a daughter named Wairaka. Arriving on the New Zealand east coast, - “Mataatua” is said to have sailed northwards and eventually to have put into Whakatane. The men folk went on an inland expedition to get into touch with the local inhabitants - (the people of Toi-kai-Rakau.)
Whilst so absent - and only the women folk with the canoe, weather conditions arose which threatened damage or if not the actual destruction of their vessel. Hence Wairaka - to encourage her women companions - called them to action saying “Kia Whaka-tane ahau i au”- (let me act as a man). Then with the aid of oars and propelling poles - “Mataatua” with much effort was brought into the inner river estuary - where now is the township of Whakatane - so called to commemorate Wairaka’s deed of promptitude.
Now Toroa, her father, as an elder son, had been versed in all knowledge sacred and utilitarian necessary to a man of Rank, & hence he was possessed of the '“mana-ariki” (chieftain prestige). He had successfully navigated hither the canoe, following the instructions of his father Irakewa - (who is said to have been a former resident at Whakatane and to have returned to Tahiti).
Toroa it was who allotted to the various immigrant families their localities for settlement. His younger brother Puhi, impatient of such dominance, quarrelled with his ariki brother Toroa, and cursed him. His major grievance was the location of his cultivation. Puhi then re-embarked in “Mataatua”, and sailed away to the North settling down there, and became the ancestor from whom Nga-Puhi derive their descent.
Puhi had a nickname by which he is remembered - “Puhi - Kai-ariki” (Puhi eater of his ariki) because of his disrespect to his elder brother and senior in rank. Incidentally - this quarrel in the Toroa clan caused other members to seek homes elsewhere. Muriwai a sister of those men migrated hither to the Waitakere coast, and there, “Te Pare-o-Muriwai” - a deserted fortified headland is to be seen - of which the abbreviated name “Muriwai” commemorates that ancient lady.
Now Wairaka got involved in a complication, due to a love affair. This brought about a misunderstanding with her harassed father Toroa. This misadventure of Wairaka was apologetically explained by her thus: “Na te Po Wairaka raru ai” - (Twas because of night’s deep gloom that Wairaka was put to confusion) - a proverbial saying still extant and applied to incidents leading to misunderstandings of like nature.
However this contretemps propelled Wairaka also to leave the paternal home, and she also “came North” with her family and retainers, and settled with Kindred at Mt. Albert (formerly called ‘Oruarangi’). Here she became a recognised leader and foundress of a tribe called Ngati-Wai whose territories comprised that part of the isthmus from the Manukau to the Waitemata shores, extending also to the Northern shores of the Waitemata, from Opuamo (Hellyns Creek) to the North Head.
In her old-age, Wairaka returned to Whakatane, and died among her father’s children there, leaving thus her name to posterity as a tribal foundress, and recorded in place-names, proverbs and much folk-lore.
To go somewhat out of chronological sequence, this lady Wairaka in fact is said to have been the cause of the migration of the Matatua people. There had been much fighting, she being “the lady in the case”.
It appears that at Tahiti, she had been a kind of beach bathing beauty - and was much skilled in surf-bathing, and proficient in the sport of ‘Reti” (surf-board riding).
When she married, her husband considered these accomplishments (unduly continued within matrimonial state) not appropriate to happy domestic conditions. He therefore made his home inland.
But Wairaka continually got away to her favourite sea-side pastime. He chastised her, and Wairaka returned to complain to Toroa, who was in a dilemma. He sheltered her from her irate husband, who then attacked Toroa’s village. This met with reprisals, and Toroa’s people killed many of the husband’s people in their inland village. This led to a continued feud, and brought about Toroa’s migration to New Zealand on the advice of Irakewa. Hence also the proverb, “The playful doings of Wairaka continued until doings of sadness came forth”.
Now ‘Wairaka’ itself is the name of the coastal village where Wairaka was born. The name means ‘Waters entangled” or ‘enmeshed’, because of the many reefs and tortuous channels at that place.
In closing I might point out that as a general rule - that when a place-name commemorates a person’s name, an ‘O’ usually appears - it is the equivalent of our ‘of’ or the possessive suffix “ ‘s’ ".
Hence ‘Owairaka’ might be rendered ‘Wairaka’s’, or Otakaka ‘Takaka’s’; ‘Oruarangi’ Ruarangi’s, etc.
These forms of place-names were primarily an indication of a claim to the possession of such localities or districts by people descended from the people so named. This operated similarly to our Certificates and deeds of title, which in fact are today issued by virtue of such basic claims substantiated in the Native Land Courts.
Thus our Māori place-names are of much historic value and interest, and indeed therefore worthy of preservation for future time as permanent mementos
of bygone conditions which have passed away. These place-names thus verify another Māori adage: “Men may pass away, but the land remains forever”.
I Remain,
Yours faithfully,
George Graham.”
We would say, Wāhine are Whare Tangata, the House of Humanity. We do not need to be men to be brave, strong or capable. We did not have gender identity communities. This is the knowledge that we fight to preserve for future time, as our old people and our stories pass away, and the gender ideologues try to claim our Tipuna for their own ends. We will never surrender them.
NOTES & REFERENCES
To read the original letter, visit or email Auckland Museum, George Graham collection, MS 120 -M19, , Pg 45, ‘History of Wairaka (Mt. Albert), and that Chieftainess after whom Mt. Albert (Owairaka) is so named’. The Museum Library is open Tues-Thurs, 10-3, and archived material must be requested in advance to view in the library reading room.
Regarding Ngā Puhi and the story of Toroa’s brother, included in the letter as an aside, we came across another interesting document recently from the Waitangi Tribunal Mana Wāhine hearings, which offers a quite different, female account of the origins of this name.
And finally, Happy Women’s Suffrage Day New Zealand Wāhine! From left to right, Phillippa, Rex, and Di Landy, Mana Wāhine Kōrero, Pōneke 2025.
Comments