The Kia Ora Lady

Kahurangi (Dame) Rangimārie Naida Glavish first rose to prominence in the 1980s when, working in the Helensville toll exchange, she grabbed national headlines for refusing to stop greeting callers with ‘kia ora’. Though threatened with losing her job, she eventually won this landmark battle, one of many she has fought during her long life advocating for the rights and recognition of Māori in Aotearoa.

Raised by her grandmother in an earthen-floored whare on the shores of the Kaipara Harbour, Kahurangi Naida experienced the brutality of racism early in her life when, as a teenager, she was separated from her whanau and made a ward of the state for the flimsiest of reasons.

That stoked a fire in her belly that has never dimmed, and she has been an activist ever since, in recent decades devoted to improving the experience of Māori in the health system.

This is a powerful memoir from a kuia of great courage and tenacity, and which is also full of deep insights into te ao Māori. The Kia Ora Lady should be essential reading for anyone wanting to understand why and how Māori are fighting for their rightful place in Aotearoa.