Jean Puketapu

Jean Gloria Edith Puketapu or Jean Puketapu-Waiwai QSO (26 July 1931 – 31 July 2012) was a Ngāi Tūhoe Māori language activist and co-founder of the first kōhanga reo.

Puketapu was one of thirteen children of Haami and Te Ngaroahiahi Waiwai, shearers in the Ureweras near Lake Waikaremoana. She was beaten at Kokako Native School at Tuai for speaking Māori language and at home for speaking English, but obtained a scholarship to Hukarere College in Napier. At the age of 18, she moved to Lower Hutt with her sister and her husband, who was the son of Rua Tapunui Kenana, the Maori prophet, faith healer and land rights activist.

She and her sisters became active in the Te Aroha Hutt Valley Association, particularly in the double long poi. Her mother, Te Ngaroahiahi, was one of the Tuhoe kuia who worked on tokutoku panels for Arohanui ki te Tangata, whose construction was spearheaded by Ihaia (Paddy) Puketapu. Jean married Ihakara Puketapu, Paddy's son, in 1956 and they moved to Wainuiomata.

While Ikakara was studying at the University of Chicago, Puketapu spent time in a project teaching women to read and write in a 'Negro ghetto'. When he returned from a posting to the New Zealand High Commission in London, Jean started work at Wainuiomata College teaching Maori, and helped to found the first kōhanga reo in 1981.

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