Eva Rickard
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Eva Rickard (1925-1997) was a New Zealand - Aotearoa Māori of Tainui ancestry; a mother of 9, a grandmother, a spiritual guardian of New Zealand Māori traditions, a political land rights activist and a valuable member of the (Te Kòpua) Raglan community where she was born and raised. [1]
Eva Rickard (born Eva Kereopa) was most notably regarded for her decade long, very public civil disobedience campaigns to have ancestral lands alongside Raglan harbour returned to its rightful custodians, and to have Maori mana and culture recognized. During the Second World War by acquisition, the New Zealand Government took land from indigenous Maori owners for the purpose of a military airfield. Instead of these being handed back to its former owners (the Tainui Awhiro peoples) when no longer required for defence purposes, part of the land, a 62 acre block was turned into a public Raglan golf course in 1969. [2]
Throughout the 1970’s Rickard tirelessly campaigned to raise public awareness about Maori land rights. After attempting to reoccupy this ancestral indigenous land in 1978 she was arrested for trespass along with another 19 Maori protesters, on the ninth hole of the Raglan golf course. This incident was captured by New Zealand television and was a defining moment in her public life. Their court appearance set off a chain of events which trailed through the courts amidst bitter argument at local and national level, but finally led to the return of the land to local Māori people. After the land was returned it became a focus for local job-training and employment programs, as well as a focus for the Maori sovereignty movement.
The Mana Māori Movement was the largest wholly-Māori political party, founded by Rickard, and contested the New Zealand general election, 2002. Mana Māori incorporated the smaller Te Tawharau and Piri Wiri Tua parties. Rickard was originally a member of Mana Motuhake, another Māori party, but quit when Mana Motuhake joined the Alliance (a broad left-wing coalition).
Rickard was an ardent advocate for women’s rights within Maoridom itself and encouraged other female activists to ignore traditional Maori protocol by calling for the rights for Maori women to speak at official Maori gatherings, including on the Marae. At her official Tangi where she was laid to rest on the land she had spent a decade fighting to have returned to her people, Maori activist Annette Sykes, when attempting to speak, had to endure cries of “you sit down, you have no right to speak.” Here Sykes stood up and publicly challenged men to recognise, the Mana of Maori women. [3]
[edit] Sources
Listen to Eva Rickard and other Maori activists on Radio New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi- Te Tiriti o Waitangi Focus program, describing their long campaigns for Maori land rights and self determination. [4]
Eva Rickards' letter to the Queen of England, 13 September 1995. [5]
[edit] External links
- Mrs Eva Rickard 1925-1997
- If Christ came to Raglan
- Rickard on maori women
- Revolutionary Women Stencils
- Rickard biography
- Marae Protocol and Gender
- Official Treaty of Waitangi Information Site
