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Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan

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The Honourable
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan
ONZ
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan circa 1960
3rd Minister for the Environment
In office
10 September 1974 – 12 December 1975
Prime MinisterBill Rowling
Preceded byJoe Walding
Succeeded byVenn Young
20th Minister of Tourism
In office
8 December 1972 – 12 December 1975
Prime MinisterNorman Kirk
Bill Rowling
Preceded byBert Walker
Succeeded byHarry Lapwood
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Southern Maori
In office
11 March 1967 (1967-03-11) – 12 October 1996
Preceded byEruera Tirikatene
Succeeded byConstituency Abolished
Personal details
Born9 January 1932
Rātana Pā, New Zealand
Died20 July 2011(2011-07-20) (aged 79)
Wellington, New Zealand
Political partyLabour Party
Spouse
Denis Sullivan
​
(m. 1967)​
RelationsEruera Tirikatene (father)
Rino Tirikatene (nephew)
EducationRangiora High School,
Wellington East Girls' College
Alma materAustralian National University

Tini "Whetu" Marama Tirikatene-Sullivan ONZ (9 January 1932 – 20 July 2011) was a New Zealand politician. She was an MP from 1967 to 1996, representing the Labour Party and was New Zealand’s first Māori woman cabinet minister. At the time of her retirement, she was the second longest-serving MP in Parliament, being in her tenth term of office. She was one of twenty holders of the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour of the country.

Early life

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Whetu Marama Tirikatene was born on 9 January 1932, the daughter of Eruera Tirikatene and Ruti Tirikatene (née Solomon). Her iwi are Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kahungunu.[1] She was raised at Rātana Pā by her grandmother, dress designer and tailor Amiria Henrici Solomon.[2] Educated at Rangiora High School[3] and Wellington East Girls' College, she excelled in dancing, winning the New Zealand amateur Latin American ballroom dancing championship with her Australian partner Kevin Mansfield, and was also accomplished in fencing, becoming one of the top four female fencers in the country.[4][5] She studied for a PhD in political science at the Australian National University, with the topic "Contemporary Maori Political Involvement".[5] While there, she met Denis Sullivan, a physics PhD student who later became an associate professor in physics and astrophysics at Victoria University of Wellington, and they were married in Canberra on 18 March 1967.[5][6][7]

Member of Parliament

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1967–1969 35th Southern Maori Labour
1969–1972 36th Southern Maori Labour
1972–1975 37th Southern Maori Labour
1975–1978 38th Southern Maori Labour
1978–1981 39th Southern Maori Labour
1981–1984 40th Southern Maori Labour
1984–1987 41st Southern Maori Labour
1987–1990 42nd Southern Maori Labour
1990–1993 43rd Southern Maori Labour
1993–1996 44th Southern Maori Labour

Her brother Te Rino Tirikatene stood unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in the 1963 election and 1966 election for Rangiora. When their father Sir Eruera Tirikatene died in 1967 many expected Te Rino to succeed him as MP for Southern Maori. As Te Rino was part-Maori and entitled to choose between being on the Maori and European electoral rolls, at the time of the by-election he was registered on the European roll in Rangiora where he had to remain under the electoral act until the next general election, which made it unlikely he would be eligible as a candidate in Southern Maori. With her brother effectively ruled out, attention turned to Tirikatene (studying in Australia at the time) as the likely Labour candidate for the seat.[8][9] She was eventually selected as Labour's candidate.[10]

She duly was elected to succeed her father in Parliament at the Southern Maori by-election of 1967.[5][11] Between 1972 and 1975, she was the Minister of Tourism.[12] In addition, she was Associate minister of Social Welfare from 1972 to 1974.[13] She was Minister for the Environment from 1974 to 1975.[14] She was re-elected by substantial majorities until the 1996 election, when the Southern Maori electorate was abolished in the transition to MMP. Tirikatene-Sullivan then contested the new Te Tai Tonga electorate, which covered much of the same territory as the old Southern Maori electorate, but she was narrowly defeated by Tu Wyllie of New Zealand First. She subsequently retired from politics.

In 1970, Tirikatene-Sullivan became the second woman to give birth whilst an MP. She later became the first (both in New Zealand and the Commonwealth) cabinet minister to give birth to a child.[15]

On 6 February 1993, Tirikatene-Sullivan was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest civilian award given by the New Zealand government. The same year, she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.[16] She died in Wellington on 20 July 2011.[17]

Legacy

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Tirikatene-Sullivan was the youngest Māori woman elected at the time, she was also the first Māori woman to be a cabinet minister, and the first sitting MP to give birth in New Zealand.[18] In 2016, her portrait was raised alongside Iriaka Rātana in the New Zealand Parliament Buildings at Mātangireia. The portraits were hung with a special ceremony held to commemorate them, with extended family attending the ceremony.[19][20] Tirikatene-Sullivan's 29 years representing Southern Maori was the longest at the time, and was only surpassed by Annette King's 30 years as the longest-serving women in New Zealand's Parliament.[21]

Tirikatene-Sullivan was particularly known for her style of dress, often wearing fashionable outfits rather than the suits many professional women wore at the time. She was a patron of the arts, and she commissioned garments from contemporary Māori artists. These included artists like Sandy Adsett, Para Matchitt, Cliff Whiting, and Frank Davis. The Māori motifs that were incorporated into her outfits was unique for the time, and exposed New Zealanders to a new expression of Māori art. Tirikatene-Sullivan was acutely aware that her style of dress and design choice served as a political statement, and was conscious of the transformative power her style of dress served.[22][23][24] As Minister of Tourism, she took her unique style to locations such as Australia's Sydney Opera House, where she exhibited her Tania evening gown featuring a kowhaiwhai motif on a global stage.[25] Her collection of outfits was exhibited at MTG Hawke's Bay at an exhibition titled Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan: Travel in Style.[26][27]

Notes

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  1. ^ Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Tirikatene-Sullivan, Tini Whetu Marama". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  2. ^ Elizabeth, Wratislav (2014). Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan : travel in style. Hammonds, Lucy,, Cracknell, Tryphena,, MTG Hawke's Bay (Museum). Napier. ISBN 9780992259679. OCLC 893610628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ "Rangiora High School - Alumni". Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  4. ^ "Where the Queen went she followed". Te Ao Hou (7). Department of Maori Affairs: 11. Summer 1954. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d "New Member of Parliament for Southern Maori". Te Ao Hou (59). Department of Maori Affairs: 5. June 1967. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  6. ^ "Denis Sullivan". Victoria University. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  7. ^ "Maori M.P. secretly weds A.N.U. man". The Canberra Times. 15 April 1967. p. 1. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Tirikatene's Successor". The Press. Vol. CVI, no. 31267. 13 January 1967. p. 1.
  9. ^ "Mr Tirikatene Ineligible?". The Press. Vol. CVI, no. 31268. 14 January 1967. p. 1.
  10. ^ "Tirikatene Again". The Evening Post. 15 February 1967.
  11. ^ Wilson 1985, p. 240.
  12. ^ Wilson 1985, pp. 92–93.
  13. ^ Wilson 1985, pp. 117.
  14. ^ Wilson 1985, p. 93.
  15. ^ "Mothers in Parliament: The women who paved the way for Jacinda Ardern". Newshub. 24 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  16. ^ "The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 – register of recipients". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  17. ^ "NZ's longest-serving female MP passes away". The New Zealand Herald. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  18. ^ Lynch, Jenna. "Mothers in Parliament: The women who paved the way for Jacinda Ardern". Newshub. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  19. ^ Timutimu, Ripeka. "Portraits of honourable female Māori MPs unveiled at Mātangireia". Māori Television. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  20. ^ "Trail blazing wahine MPs remembered". www.waateanews.com. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  21. ^ "Are we there yet? Women in Parliament". nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  22. ^ "MP leaves legacy of style". NZ Herald. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  23. ^ Ahwa, Dan (2 March 2020). "The Politics of Fashion: How Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan's Pioneering Style Paved The Way For Politicians Today – Viva". www.viva.co.nz. Viva Magazine. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  24. ^ "Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan and husband Denis". teara.govt.nz. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  25. ^ "New Zealand Fashion Museum". nzfashionmuseum.org.nz. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  26. ^ "The fashion of Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan". RNZ. 28 September 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  27. ^ "Fashion retrospective – Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan". NZ Herald. Retrieved 13 July 2021.

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan.
  • Women in Parliamentary Life 1970–1990: Hocken Lecture 1993 by Marilyn Waring, page 36-37 (Hocken Library, University of Otago, 1994) ISBN 0-902041-61-4
  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for the Environment
1974–1975 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Tourism
1972–1975 		Succeeded by
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Southern Maori
1967–1996 		Constituency abolished
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