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Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere says its new Hauraki Waikato candidate is a symbol of the vision the kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori movement had for future Māori leadership.
He says 20-year-old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke will be the first parliamentary candidate to have come right through the kaupapa-Maori education pathway.
But it wasn’t easy for her to challenge her whanaunga Nanaia Mahuta.
“They live in the same village as Nanaia, and they are closely whakapapa-related. So after she talked with her aunty, she determined that with her whanau support she would run – and I just think it’s an outstanding result because she is the first person to stand for politics, who has come through the kohanga and wharekura systems,” Mr Tamihere says.
He says it’s courageous to stand against someone as formidable as Naniai Mahuta – and it’s a sign of Ms Maipi-Clarke’s future leadership qualities.
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