There’s a gathering of the tribes in Rotorua to farewell Waereti Tait Wall, who died this week aged 73.

The Te Arawa and Tuhoe was a long-serving social worker who was also tapped for governance roles, including a term on the Māori Language Commission and time on the Rotorua District Council’s Te Arawa standing committee.

Her aunt Merepeka Raukawa-Tait says she was part of the team put together by her uncle John Rangihau for the review of the Department of Social Welfare that led to the Puao Te Ata Tū report.

"She was always adamant that we have unlimited potential based on tikanga Maori and whakapapa, and that's what we have to encourage in our younger children. She was lovely. She was quiet. She was unassuming but she was steeped in tikanga. She was brought up by the old people," she says.

The tangi for Waereti Tait is at Tunohopu Marae in Ohinemutu, with the nehu on Saturday.

Follow us on &

Copyright © 2021, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com