August 29, 2016
Far north mourns Ngati Kahu matriarch Roma Rupapera
Ngati Kahu is today laying to rest its matriarch Roma Rupapera, who passed away at the age of 89.
Former MP Shane Jones says Mrs Rupapera raised nine children after she was widowed 45 years ago.
She played a prominent role in Maori life in the far north and further afield.
"Former leader of the Maori Women's Welfare League, the Mothers' Union Maori branch of the Anglican church, a great supporter of Hector Busby and that generation who revived waka craft, and one of our most significant stalwarts in observing the treaty at Waitangi since when she was a young woman," Mr Jones says.
Roma Rupapera’s tangi has been at Peria Marae, and today she will be buried alongside her late husband at Whatuwhiwhi.
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