September 07, 2015
Lifelong worker for change Ngareta Jones dies
As the northern tide reached its lowest ebb this morning, Ngareta Jones died peacefully at her home at Hihi on the shore of the Mangonui Harbour after a long battle with cancer.
The 56-year-old was one of the founders of Te Kawariki, the movement that brought out a new generation of northern youth in the early 1980s to protest the crown’s failure to honour the Treaty of Waitangi.
The mother of seven also helped set up Nga Mokopuna kura kaupapa in Wellington, and worked for many years in the public service, including working closely with the late Parekura Horomia on creating employment for Maori.
Alongside her husband, former MP Shane Jones, she became active in the Labour Party, serving as chair of its kaunihera Maori.
Ngareta Jones will be taken back to Tauteihiihi Marae in Kohukohu to lie among her Mete whanau.
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