Donna Awatere Huata
| Donna Awatere Huata | |
|---|---|
| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for ACT list |
|
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In office 12 October 1996 – 2004 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1949 |
| Spouse(s) | Wi Huata |
Donna Lynn Awatere Huata (sometimes written Awatere-Huata, previously known as Donna Awatere; born 1949) is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament for the ACT New Zealand Party, former activist for Māori causes, and convicted fraudster.
Donna Awatere was born in Rotorua in 1949, and was educated in Auckland. Her primary area of study was education, particularly educational psychology, but she has also undertaken study in operatic singing and film production.
Her father, Colonel Arapeta Awatere DSO MC, was a prominent member of the Māori Battalion who was later elected to the Auckland City Council. In 1969 he was convicted of the murder of his mistress's lover and sent to jail, where he eventually died.
From the 1970s Awatere became involved in the Māori protest movement, including the group Nga Tamatoa. She was a leading protester against the 1981 Springbok Tour, and in 1984 she published Maori Sovereignty, which became a key text in the Māori protest movement. During this period she and fellow Maori activist Ripeka Evans went to Communist Cuba. She was also involved in feminist politics, and Maori Sovereignty was originally written for the feminist magazine Broadsheet. She was critical of white feminists who ignored issues of race, and expressed the opinion that the problems facing Māori were more important than those facing women and other marginalised groups. In Maori Sovereignty she is generally critical of the established left.
After the publication of Maori Sovereignty, Awatere retired from protest and became a biculturalism consultant for various organisations, including the New Zealand Treasury and the New Zealand Police. She also imported a children's reading programme, which she later developed and promoted through the Pipi Foundation. During this period she married Wi Huata and changed her surname from Awatere to Awatere Huata.
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