December 31, 2025

Helena Tuteao Awarded MNZM for Advocacy for Disabled Māori and Whānau

Matthew Tukaki Posted On December 31, 2025

Disability advocate and Māori leader Ms Helena Audrey Tuteao has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her outstanding services to people with disabilities and Māori, recognising more than 25 years of leadership, advocacy and system change across the disability sector.

Ms Tuteao (Tainui) is widely respected for advancing Kaupapa Māori approaches to disability, ensuring disabled Māori and their whānau are recognised as experts in their own lives and supported to exercise tino rangatiratanga.

Over more than two decades, Ms Tuteao has worked across a wide range of disability organisations, including:

Ripple Trust
CCS Disability Action
Blind Low Vision New Zealand
My Life My Voice

Her work has consistently focused on removing systemic barriers, strengthening self-determination, and ensuring disability services are culturally safe and responsive for Māori.

Since 2012, Ms Tuteao has been an active member of the Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA), serving two terms on its National Executive Committee, where she contributed to national advocacy and policy leadership.

In 2013, she joined Waikato’s Enabling Good Lives (EGL) Leadership Group, playing a key role in shaping a model that places disabled people and whānau at the centre of decision-making. She also participated in a world-leading evaluation reference group, contributing to evidence that has influenced disability reform both nationally and internationally.

Ms Tuteao has served on:

The National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group
The now-disestablished Workforce Development Disability Advisory Group

In 2023, Ms Tuteao was appointed Pou Rangatira Regional Leader for the Waikato–Hauraki area of Te Ao Marama Aotearoa, the national body representing disabled Māori.

She also serves as Pou Tohitū for Te Hunga Kāpō, providing leadership and guidance on Kaupapa Māori solutions for Māori who are blind or vision impaired.

Through these roles, she has strengthened Māori leadership within disability spaces and ensured Indigenous perspectives are embedded in national decision-making.

Advising Government and Shaping Policy

Ms Tuteao provides regular strategic advice to key government agencies, including:

Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People
Manatū Hauora – Ministry of Health
Te Puni Kōkiri
Ministry of Education

In 2021, she served on the Community Steering Group that helped establish the Ministry of Disabled People, later joining the Ministry’s Insights Alliance to support evidence-based policy and reform.

In 2024, Ms Tuteao co-authored the chapter “Decolonizing Disability: Indigenous Māori Perspectives of Disability Research in the Modern Era” in the Springer Handbook of Disability.

That work challenges colonial frameworks in disability research and policy, centring Māori worldviews, lived experience and Indigenous knowledge systems.

Ms Helena Tuteao’s MNZM recognises a lifetime of service grounded in mana, advocacy and collective leadership.

Her work has reshaped how disability is understood in Aotearoa – not as a deficit, but as a dimension of human diversity, shaped by social, cultural and systemic conditions.

For disabled Māori and their whānau, her honour affirms the importance of Māori-led solutions, self-determination and equity within disability systems.