 Merimeri Penfold, 2008 by Martin Friedlander Dr Merimeri Penfold, Ngati Kuri, born in 1920 in Te Hãpua, an isolated Mãori community in the far north of New Zealand, near Cape Reinga, has died. Merimeri Penfold, Whãea of the University of Auckland, very first university teacher of the Mãori language in New Zealand from 1964, dominion vice president and inaugural member of the Mãori Women’s Welfare League, one of New Zealand's finest translators and a contributor to the seventh edition of the definitive Williams dictionary of Mãori language, translator of nine Shakespearean love sonnets, Ngã Waiata Aroha Love Sonnets (2000), co-editor of The Book of New Zealand Women: Ko Kui Ma Te Kaupapa (1993), co-author of Women in the Arts in New Zealand (1986) first woman to write a haka and perform it in protest over the All Black tour of South Africa in 1976, campaigner for a marae on the University of Auckland campus for which she received an honorary doctorate in 2000, a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Maori in 2001, Human Rights Commissioner 2002 - 2007, a loved mother, grandmother, sister and friend has passed on. New Zealand has lost a wahine toa.
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