Mighty Mâori Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Whina Cooper

Dame Whina Cooper was born in the far north of New Zealand's North Island in the region known as Hokianga, in 1895. She worked tirelessly to improve the conditions and the lot of Mâori women. Elected to the presidency of the Mâori Women's Welfare League in 1951 she campaigned for improvements in health, education, housing and welfare. As part of her campaigning, she was at the head of the march for Mâori land rights in 1975, despite being 80 years old at the time. To put that into perspective the event saw some 5,000 people marching from Te Hapua to Wellington, a distance of over 1,000 kilometres (620 miles). Her efforts saw her appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire, an honour that was promoted to Commander in 1974 and, eventually, Dame Commander in 1981.

Sir Apirana Ngata

Born in Te Araroa in 1874, Ngata would be elected to New Zealand's parliament in 1905 and, four years later found himself in a Cabinet post where his responsibility was the Mâori land councils. He would spend a total of 38 years in parliament, devoting six of those years as the Minister for Mâori Affairs. A Mâori proud of his culture and history he put in countless hours into writing legislation to improve the legal rights of the Mâori and promote and protect Mâori history and culture. He promoted the haka, poi dancing and Mâori traditional carvings. He used sport as means to make his people more visible, built meeting houses and pushed for greater use of the Mâori language. He was the first Mâori to gain a university degree and the first New Zealander to gain a double degree. Knighted in 1927, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935 and his image has appeared on the face of the New Zealand $50 note since 1999.

Katerina Te Heikoko

Born in Tokomaru Bay, New Zealand in 1932 Katerina dedicated her life to keeping the Te reo Mâori, an indigenous New Zealand language, also known as "Aotearoa", alive which, at the time, was seen as a dying language. Her work resulted in the creation of the Te Ataarangi and the Kohanga Reo, both of which are major language revitalization movements in Aotearoa. A strong believer in education and was a force in promoting the philosophy of Te Aho Matua as the guiding light for teaching Mâori. Her work in this area saw her bestowed with the honour of being named the "Mother of Kura Kaupapa Mâori" - primary schools in New Zealand that operate using full immersion Mâori language instruction and are deeply rooted in Mâori cultural values and practices

Claire Mary Rawstron

Claire is better known as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, a renowned New Zealand soprano who rose to international prominence with her performance as the Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in 1971, at the Royal Opera House in London. With a voice described as "mellow yet vibrant, ample and unforced", she has sung in several languages, and has often been cast in aristocratic roles. She is strongly linked to the works of Verdi, Mozart and Puccini and, in November of 2019, as a recognition of her achievements on the world stage, the ASB Theatre in the Aotea Centre in Aukland, was renamed as the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre.

Keisha Castle-Hughes

Of Maori descent, Keisha was born in the rural centre of Donnybrook in Western Australia in 1990. Her family moved to New Zealand when she was four years-old and she became a New Zealand citizen in 2001. The following year, as a twelve year-old, she starred as Paikea Apirana in the New Zealand drama "Whale Rider" (2002) in a performance that saw her nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. While she lost to Charlize Theron's "Monster" performance she had the distinction, at the time, of being the youngest Best Actress nominee. Her other movie and television appearances include the role of Queen Apailana of Naboo in "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" (2005), as one of the "Sand Snakes", Obara Sand in television's "Game of Thrones" (2015-17) and as the voice of Emerie Karr in the animated "Stars Wars: The Bad Batch" (2023-24).

Sir Peter Buck

Also known as Te Rangihiroa, Peter was a man of many talents. As a young man he was a gifted sportsman, captaining his high school athletics and rugby teams and, while studying medicine at the University of Otago he became New Zealand's national long jump champion in 1900 and 1903. However, it was in medicine where he first made his mark, serving as a medical officer to the Mâori people from 1905 and completing a thesis on both contemporary and traditional Mâori medical practices in 1910. Prior to that he entered politics where he served as a Member of Parliament for the Northern Mâori electorate for five years. During this time he also worked in the Cook Islands and Niue and this led to an interest in anthropology.

After serving in World War I as a medical officer he developed his anthropological studies and made significant contributions into understanding Mâori and Polynesian cultures and events, via the publication of numerous papers and books. He would see out his days as Director of the Bishop Museum from 1936 until his death in 1951. In the 1946 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to science and literature.

Taika Waititi

Taika is one of the most famous filmmakers to come out of New Zealand. He has won both an Oscar and a BAFTA award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on the 2019 film "JoJo Rabbit". In addition, he's been at the helm as director of blockbusters such as "Thor: Ragnarock" (2017) and "Thor: Love and Thunder" (2022). Other films that have earned his unique touch as director include "What We Do in the Shadows" (2014) and the enigmatic "Boy" (2010).

You would have also heard Taika's distinctive Kiwi accent as the voice of the Kronan warrior Korg in a number of the films from the Marvel universe, including "Avengers: Endgame" (2019). Previously, in 1999, he'd teamed up with fellow comedian Jemaine Clement as the Humourbeasts and the pair would take out New Zealand's top comedy award, the Billy T. Award, that same year. In 2017 Taika would be named New Zealander of the Year and he would be blessed in the Queen's Birthday honours in 2020 as an Officer in the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Dame Lisa Carrington

By 2022 Lisa was labelled, not only, the most influential Mâori sports personality of the 21st century but New Zealand's greatest Olympic athlete of all time. Lisa is more than a kayaking champion, she is a force of nature in the sport, winning nine Olympic medals, eight of them gold, over four Summer Olympic Games between 2012 and 2024. Born in 1989, she got her first taste of canoeing as a child when her father took her on a camping trip. At the age of twenty she entered the World Cup regatta in Szeged, Hungary and walked away with a bronze medal in the K-2 1,000 metre event. The following year she would win that same event in Vichy, France and then proceeded to dominate the sport for the next decade. Whilst she has stepped back from the sport she has outlined plans to contest the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles.

Adam Parore

Adam Parore became New Zealand's first Mâori to play international cricket. Born in Aukland, he made his Test match debut in 1990 as his country's wicketkeeper. In all he played 78 Test matches, retiring in 2002 after more than a decade of service to his country. One of the keys to Parore's success was his fitness and it was not uncommon for him to jog home after having spent a hard day in the field. This paid off as he was at the peak of his powers behind the stumps after he'd turned thirty years of age. Parore was also a talented batsman, so much so that, when Lee Germon took over the wicketkeeping duties for New Zealand, Adam retained his spot in the side as a batsman. He completed two Test match centuries for his country with a highest score of 110. During that innings he featured in a partnership of 253 with Nathan Astle for the eighth wicket.

Rangi Matamua

Named New Zealander of the Year in 2023, Dr. Rangi Matamua is an academic in Mâori cultural astronomer and the first Mâori person to win a Prime Minister's Science Prize. Cultural astronomy has been described as "the diversity of ways in which cultures, both ancient and modern, perceive celestial objects and integrate them into their view of the world." Rangi had a head start in this field as he is descended from a long line of Mâori astronomers and is one of the select few schooled in Mâori traditions and knowledge through the Te Mata Punenga (a group of 12 men who are experts in Mâori knowledge and traditions). His early learnings were passed down through written accounts maintained by both his great-grandfather and great great-grandfather. This legacy places him in a unique position to be able pass this knowledge onto the general population of New Zealand.