Mural Celebrating Female Success

1910 - 1988 
Iwi: Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Ngāi Tahu

With her powerful voice and curious intellect, Airini Nga Roimata Grennell was a trailblazer for Māori women.

Born at Waitangi in the Chatman Islands, Airini’s family eventually moved to Port Levy where she developed a love for both sport and music. Although talented in both, it was music where she really excelled and what she went on to study further. Airini was also passionate about art and later married Rudolf (Rudi) Gopas, a well-known artist.

Airini spent time in the Koukourarata concert party performing to raise money for the community, before joining the Waiata Māori Choir. The choir travelled extensively, including tours of Australia, India and England, where they presented to King George VI. During the Second World War, Airini travelled with radio announcers to sing and play the piano for community concerts and to raise money. A talented soprano, she became affectionately known as the ‘Chatham Islands Nightingale’.

Airini’s trained voice and excellent diction in both Māori and English helped her transition into radio, where she spent 28 years working at stations across the country. During this time she organised a radio series for women and initiated a network of women’s programmes on national radio. She was also a commentator for five royal tours.

After retiring, Airini became a leader of Banks Peninsula Ngāi Tahu and Taranaki-Wharekauri Ngāti Mutunga. She continued to maintain standards of speech in both Māori and English and demonstrated pride in her culture; her life’s work helping to bring about a renaissance in Māori culture.

1912 - 2001

Leading activist in feminism, social justice and peace movements, Elsie Locke was a true change-maker here in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

A gifted writer, Elsie is well known for her large catalogue of published work, including children and adult books as well as articles and stories for journals and newspapers, many that focused on New Zealand History. In 1987, The University of Canterbury recognised Elsie’s contribution to historical and children’s literature by awarding her an honorary doctorate. In 1999, her best-known children’s novel, The Runaway Settlers, won the Gaelyn Gordon Award for Much Loved Book.

Elsie’s early awareness of social injustice saw her join the Communist Party in 1933. During this time she started a women focused newsletter, called Working Women and a magazine, entitled Woman Today. In 1936, she was involved in the formation of the Sex, Hygiene and Birth Regulation Society, what would later become the Family Planning Association. She resigned from the Party in 1956, following the Soviet invasion of Hungary, having become critical of the policies and practices.

Elsie was a changemaker not just in Christchurch but in wider New Zealand. She was a founding member of the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and held executive positions both locally and nationally. She campaigned against the raising of Lake Manapouri and the cutting down of West Coast beech forests. Locally, she was a founding member of the residents association in the Avon Loop and also fought to retain the Centennial Pool when it was threatened with closure.

Elsie was a determined advocate for the underdog, had a great intellectual mind, was a talented and creative writer and passionate social activist.

1923 – 1997
Iwi: Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa

A woman of dignity and commanding presence, Erihapeti was an influential leader within Ngāi Tahu and a driving force for change. A prominent activist in the fields of Māori welfare and health, Erihapeti worked to build a future in which Māori would be kaitiaki ō te mauri ō te whenua - custodians of the spirit of the land.

Erihapeti was born and raised in Arowhenua. She married Malcolm Murchie and together they had ten children. Initially, Erihapeti trained and worked as a schoolteacher before becoming involved in Māori welfare. She became a long-serving member and national president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and an acclaimed researcher in the area of Māori women’s health. A gifted orator, Erihapeti was effective in gathering support for many league objectives, including a memorable speech opposing the upcoming 1970 All Black tour to South Africa.

Erihapeti understood and responded to the changes facing indigenous peoples worldwide and championed the ability of Māori to conduct research and implement change in their own affairs. In 1990 she was awarded the Queen’s Service Order, the New Zealand Commemoration Medal and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws. She was appointed patron of the College of Nurses Aotearoa in 1991 and was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Medal in 1993.

Erihapeti was also a woman of creative passions, as an accomplished actor and singer, composed waiata and poetry, performed in and directed small productions and had an active stage and radio career.

She was on many influential and prestigious committees that supported significant change in Aotearoa. These included: the South Island Land Advisory Committee; Māori Health Committee; New Zealand Drug Foundation; United Nations Working Group on The Rights of Indigenous People; Te Māori Exhibition that travelled to the United States; and the Citizens Association for Racial Equality to name a few.

Erihapeti passed away in 1997 – the evening before she was to have been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Thousands of people paid their respects to an exceptional woman recognised for her ground-breaking research and fearless leadership.

1924 – 1993 
Iwi: Ngāti Kurī, Ngāi Tahu

Conservationist and Ngāi Tahu woman of mana, Wharetutu Te Aroha Solomon Score was born in Lyttelton in 1924. She was of chiefly birth in Ngāi Tahu, grand-daughter of the respected Hāriata Pītini-Morēra who held a wealth of tribal knowledge and devoted much time to sharing her wisdom with her grand-daughter.

Wharetutu cared deeply for her culture and was passionate about conservation issues, becoming involved through the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. She campaigned successfully for the protection of historic areas and the restitution of traditional place names. In the 1980s she served on the North Canterbury National Parks and Reserves Board and became involved in the restoration of traditional arts within Ngāi Tahu.

In the early 1980s, Wharetutu was a major participant for Ngāi Tahu during the claim and settlement process, travelling as both witness and kaumātua to Waitangi Tribunal hearings. She was also involved in many ancillary claims relating to the Kaikōura coast, a number of which had been pursued by her grandmother. Wharetutu believed these claims to be her inherited duty and pursued them relentlessly.

Wharetutu was a devoted Catholic and in 1986 she travelled to Rome as part of a Māori delegation seeking papal support for the appointment of a Māori Catholic bishop.

Wharetutu is remembered for her generous spirit, warm hospitality and great dignity.

1944 – 2006

History was made when Neroli Fairhall became a gold medal winner in archery after facing more challenges than most could imagine. Neroli excelled in professional archery as a paraplegic, following a serious motorbike accident in her youth that left her paralysed from the chest down.

As an active and sporty young woman, Neroli had a fierce determination and natural talent that she worked to strengthen, never letting her disability slow her down.

She was the first athlete to take part in both the Paralympics and Olympics - in 1980 and 1984, winning gold in Brisbane. She became the first disabled athlete to compete at a Commonwealth Games and stunned the world by taking home a gold medal.

Neroli went on to compete at five world championships, the last in Turkey in 1993, plus a number of wheelchair events around the world. She won five national titles and tried desperately to get to a second Olympics. At age 51, she was determined to compete at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but a shoulder injury which required surgery proved too big a handicap.

Neroli was a New Zealand Sportsman of the Year finalist after the 1982 Commonwealth Games and was made a life member of Archery New Zealand. She went on to become an administrator for disabled sport and coached elite-level New Zealand archers.

Neroli inspired many around the world with her drive, talent and positivity. Her great legacy lives on as she was posthumously inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame during the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, represented by her family and Olympic coach.