Legacy Project - Leaders

Leaders

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People & Values

Legacy Project

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Samuel Parnell

Carpenter

After completing his apprenticeship as a carpenter and joiner in the 1830s, Samuel Duncan Parnell worked in a large joinery establishment in London. He regularly faced 12 to 14-hour workdays, and was known to debate vigorously with his colleagues about the length of time they spent at work:

David Lange

Politician

David Lange was the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving from 1984 to 1989. He is widely considered to be a symbol of New Zealand’s peace, social justice, and independent thinking due to his leadership and commitment to principles.

Georgina Beyer

Politician

Georgina Beyer (Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Porou) was a world leader in so many ways. Born in Wellington on 17 September 1957, Georgie was assigned male at birth, and named after her paternal grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel George Bertrand, who was second in command in the Māori Battalion.

Dr Joe Hawke

Activist

Since 1881, Ngāti Whātua had been at the forefront of action over tribal land loss, hosting an assembly of Māori chiefs at Kohimarama. By 1900, their land holdings had diminished to Ōkahu Bay in Ōrākei, and the government and Auckland City Council were determined to remove them from there, building a sewerage pipe across the front of the village, and refusing to connect them to the city’s fresh water supply. But Ngāti Whātua would not leave. This was their whenua (land).

Dame Jacinda Ardern

Politician

Dame Jacinda Ardern, the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, is a leader widely admired for her strength and compassion. Her leadership during times of crisis and astute handling of complex global issues earned her global recognition, despite New Zealand’s relatively small size and population.

Dame Whina Cooper

Activist

Māori have a long history of activism against land confiscations at the hands of the Crown, which broke many promises of modern New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840. Two such protest movements are the Land March of 1975 and occupation of Takaparawhau Bastion Point during 1977 and 1978 – powerful events that forever changed the course of life in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te Awa Tupua

Natural Wonder

In 2017, a remarkable thing happened. A river in Aotearoa New Zealand was recognised as a legal person, Te Awa Tupua, to accord with the indigenous Māori understanding of the river as an ancestor, with defined values for care, use, and protection of the river stemming from te ao Māori, the Māori worldview.

Kate Sheppard & Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia

Suffragists

Aotearoa New Zealand led the world in legislating for women to have the right to vote, but it was not an easy pathway. These two women made key Suffragists contributions to this fight.

Helen Clark

Global Leader

Helen Clark was New Zealand’s 37th Prime Minister and went on to become the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Programme. In 2011, she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand, the country’s highest honour that is limited to just 20 living members. She is no stranger to breaking the glass ceiling and the gender barrier, and her achievements continue to be an inspiration to women all over the world.