June Te Rina Walker-Mead

June Walker/Mead was born in Tutumatai Station, Ruatoria, and was educated at Whakawhitira Māori School and St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College. She continued her studies at Auckland Teachers’ College and Hamilton Teachers’ College and gained a trained teacher’s certificate. She studied at Auckland and Victoria Universities and graduated with a B.A. in Māori and English in the early 1980s. Through Massey University she gained a Post-graduate Diploma in Second Language Teaching in 1983. Mead has worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools, and was a dual appointment (Headmaster and Senior Mistress), with her husband, Hirini, at Minginui School, Waimarama Māori School, and Whatawhata School. She later taught Māori and English at Auckland Girls’ Grammar at a time when it was one of the few state schools offering Māori in the curriculum. Mead taught at the School for the Deaf in Auckland, and at the New Zealand Correspondence School from She was H.O.D in the bilingual unit at Wellington High School and has lectured in English at Ardmore Teachers’ College. Mead has been a researcher for Policy and Planning in the Department of Māori Affairs. During the Te Māori exhibition June and Hirini were made Cultural Ambassadors by the government: the Hon. Mike Moore said in his citation that "they have done great work for New Zealand overseas, voluntarily and without payment. The ambassadorships are one way of recognising their efforts and their mana overseas." [Evening Post 4 April 1986] June was also education advisory officer to the host museums for Te Māori in the United States and in New Zealand.

She has been an executive member of the Wellington Language Teachers’ Association, a member of the editorial committee of Voices magazine, president of the Wellington Māori Language Teachers’ Association and representative on the Wellington Regional Women’s Association on the National Council of Women. Mead was a committee member of the Save Queen Victoria School campaign, and was on the Prime Minister’s Working Party for Crime Prevention.

Mead formed a branch of the Māori Women’s Welfare League in Hawkes Bay and has been involved in the establishment of two new marae at Victoria University and Ngāti Porou ki Poneke. Mead established the library for the Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi in Whakatane and served on its academic board. She has attended a writing workshop and writes short stories, radio plays and non-fiction articles in publications including Voices on the teaching of Māori. When she worked for the Correspondence School Mead wrote bi-lingual lessons in Māori and English in the form of plays for radio broadcast to schools, and also wrote and produced a television pilot programme entitled “Māori Origins.” In 1998 she was engaged as special projects coordinator on the National Organising Committee for the 6th International Congress of Ethnobiologists that was convened in Whakatane in November 1998. Mead has three daughters and ten mokopuna, and is working on a family history with her nephew.

Biographical sources

• Correspondence and phone conversation with June Mead, 2 Feb, 19 Aug. 1998, 7 July 2004, 31 Mar., 14 Sept. and 9 Nov. 2005.