1. Tini "Whetu" Marama Tirikatene-Sullivan was a New Zealand politician.
16 Facts About Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan
1. 2.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was an MP from 1967 to 1996, representing the Labour Party and was New Zealand's first Maori woman cabinet minister.
3.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was one of twenty holders of the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour of the country.
4.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was raised at Ratana Pa by her grandmother, dress designer and tailor Amiria Henrici Solomon.
5.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan studied for a PhD in political science at the Australian National University, with the topic "Contemporary Maori Political Involvement".
6.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan duly was elected to succeed her father in Parliament at the Southern Maori by-election of 1967.
7.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was Minister for the Environment from 1974 to 1975.
8.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was re-elected by substantial majorities until the 1996 election, when the Southern Maori electorate was abolished in the transition to MMP.
9.
Whetu 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.
10.
In 1970, Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan became the second woman to give birth whilst an MP.
11.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan later became the first cabinet minister to give birth to a child.
12.
On 6 February 1993, Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest civilian award given by the New Zealand government.
13.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was the youngest Maori woman elected at the time, she was the first Maori woman to be a cabinet minister, and the first sitting MP to give birth in New Zealand.
14.
Whetu 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.
15.
Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was a patron of the arts, and she commissioned garments from contemporary Maori artists.
16.
Whetu 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.