Dame Whina Cooper

Dame Whina Cooper

Dame Whina Cooper was born on december 9th 1895. Her father was a leader Ngati Manawa and Te Kaitutae hapu of Te Rarawa.. She was the first daughter of her father's second marriage. She had a sister, four half brothers and three half sisters. She grew up in Te Karaka And was Inspired by her father and his leadership roles in the community. When she started school her teachers said she was interested in maori history. She attended Whakapapa native school. She worked at her parents shop for a while until she decided In 1913 Whina became a trainee teacher at pawarenga native school. She was one of three staff and she was the only one that was maori. She soon left teaching because parents keeped on needing her at home for community affairs. Soon after she left teaching at the age of 18. The parliament were leasing the mudflats to someone who was going to drain them and use them for planting things  .The the maori used for collecting seafood and then raced horse on it when it dried. She led a group of young maori adults and filled the mudflats back up as Dame Whina Cooper

Dame Whina Cooper was born on december 9th 1895. Her father was a leader Ngati Manawa and Te Kaitutae hapu of Te Rarawa.. She was the first daughter of her father's second marriage. She had a sister, four half brothers and three half sisters. She grew up in Te Karaka And was Inspired by her father and his leadership roles in the community. When she started school her teachers said she was interested in maori history. She attended Whakapapa native school. She worked at her parents shop for a while until she decided In 1913 Whina became a trainee teacher at pawarenga native school. She was one of three staff and she was the only one that was maori. She soon left teaching because parents keeped on needing her at home for community affairs. Soon after she left teaching at the age of 18. The parliament were leasing the mudflats to someone who was going to drain them and use them for planting things  .The the maori used for collecting seafood and then raced horse on it when it dried. She led a group of young maori adults and filled the mudflats back up as fast as the people were draining them. Some people started coming up to her and asking her to lead them in a protest to get rid of the program. She agreed to help them and started the protest. She led around 5000 marchers on 13th october. She made a petition that got signed by 60,00 people that she sent to the prime minister. She started the march from far north to wellington in 1975 she was 80 years old. She was welcomed by the prime minister at the end of the land march on the steps of parliament.  On 1991 on the queen's birthday honor list dame whina cooper was mentioned and she got awarded the new zealand order which is the best award any citizen can get. She was a amazing role model in our community for maori and pakeha people with her commitment and determination.

Dame Whina cooper leading the protest in 1975

Why She is an inspiration in our community

She was an amazing inspiration because she was so committed to her work. She was very old when she led the protest and she walked for miles and miles. She stuck up for equality and I think that is important for a changemaker to care about what is fair and about other people and their feelings.  I like the way she was so determined and didn’t give up until she go what she was after.

Virtues

A virtue is a type of behaviour that is good and effects their life in some way . Each person has different virtues and uses them in different ways.

Dame Whina Cooper used her virtues to lead a huge protest which changed the way the pakeha people treated the maori people. She the virtues she used were Compassion, courage and determination

Compassion	Compassion is a virtue which means you are selfless and put other people before yourself. It means that you have sympathy for other people. She showed this virtue by caring for all the people that were affected by the land confiscation program. She showed compassion to the children and the people of the future because that's who she was mostly doing the protest for.
Courage	Courage is when you step up and do something out of your comfort zone. She showed courage by standing up to the government. She talked in front of lots of people and walked for miles. Lots of people couldn’t do this because they wouldn’t have the courage to talk in front of that many people
Determination	Determination is when you don’t give up and you don’t let anything get in your way of doing something. She showed this by not giving up on her petition and she kept on trying to get what she wanted. She said she was willing to die still fighting to get rid of the land confiscation program. Many people would just try and then give up when it was not going too well but she put all her effort into it and got what she wished.

Her Biggest Achievement

One of her biggest achievement was changing the law about the land confiscation program. The land confiscation program was a law the government made up. If there was good land that wasn’t being used the government took it off them and sold it to someone who was going to make a farm or something like that. This affected the maori people because most of the land that was taken by the government was their sacred land. She got rid of the law. This had a impact on all the maori people and the ones who had their land taken off them.

Another one of her biggest achievements was becoming a dame and opening the commonwealth games in auckland. This also had and effect on the people because it inspired people when she said 'that the Treaty was signed so that we could all live as one nation in Aotearoa'. It is a pretty big achievement to be able to speak at a world event. It is also an amazing achievement to be a dame which means the  queen has been inspired by your work.

Something I have learnt from my research about dame whina cooper that I can apply to my own life.  

One thing that I have learnt from my hero dame whina cooper is that she has extraordinary leadership skills. She led a whole group of people to victory. I can apply leadership to my own life by helping mates to stay on task and get their work done. I can volunteer to lead my netball team in warm ups and trainings and I can lead prayer in class. I think that leadership is a good virtue to have in your life because you can help lots of people out. Sometimes it takes courage to be a good leader. Since I want to be a teacher when I grow up I have to practice leadership because teachers have to lead a class and make sure everyone is on task. If I want to be a good teacher I have to practice leadership in my life and take inspiration from Dame Whina Cooper. This could also help with mine and other peoples learning if I step up and be a leader by role modeling how you should behave in class.

What most changemakers have in common

Most changemakers have lots of virtues. One of the most common virtues that change makers have is courage,commitment and leadership. These Virtues make up a changemaker because you need to have courage to do amazing things and you need to be fully committed and determined to do amazing things. Changemakers have to be good leaders to inspire people. All changemakers are inspiring in some way. Most changemakers are humble as well.

Works Cited

Boon, Kevin. Dame Whina Cooper. Kotuku, 1992.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Dame Whina Cooper.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Whina-Cooper.

Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. “Cooper, Whina.” Māori Clothing and Adornment – Kākahu Māori – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga, 22 Sept. 2012, teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5c32/cooper-whina.