Tania Rei

Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Awa

Tania Rei is a lecturer in Māori Studies at Victoria University where she teaches courses and publishes on Māori research, the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori women. Her current research interests are in the areas of state sector reform and integrated crime prevention programmes for Māori. For the past two years, Tania has been a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Archives. She has been active in national Māori politics and has represented Māori Congress as the convenor of its research science committee and its delegations to the United Nations. She is also a mandated negotiator for her tribe Tuhourangi in Rotorua.

Rei has maintained an active role in women’s studies and serves on two YWCA committees. More recently she reported on the status of New Zealand women on behalf of the non-Government Women’s Organisations to the United Nations CEDAW committee. From 1993 to 1998 Rei participated in various conferences on Māori, Māori women and Treaty issues. She was organiser for the Māori Women’s Stream of the 1994 Women’s Studies Association Conference at Victoria University. In June 1995 she was a member of the conference organising committee of the Commonwealth NGO Forum Meeting.

She is co producer of the journal Te Pou Here Kōrero which is produced by the Māori History Association. She has been interviewed on radio and television programmes on issues concerning Māori women and the vote, Māori women’s organisations, and Māori and the science reforms. She has also provided advice and major research assistance to Sandra Coney and Liz Greenslade in their four part television documentary “Standing in the Sunshine”. Rei has assisted in the production of various publications including Anne Else’s Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand, Sandra Coney’s Standing in the Sunshine, Te Timatanga: Tatau, Tatau: Early Stories from Founding Members of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and Penny Ehrhardt and A. Beaglehole’s Women & Welfare Work 1893-1993. She has been a keynote speaker at many conferences and seminars. She is currently the chairperson of the New Zealand Labour Party Māori Policy and Advisory Council.



Biographical sources

  • Email correspondence with Tania Rei, 11 Sept. 1998.
  • Feminist Thought in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Differences and Connections. Ed. Rosemary Du Plessis and Lynne Alice. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1998. xiii.

    Non-fiction

  • "The Lady Liverpool’s and Mrs Pōmare’s Māori Soldiers’ Fund 1915-1921." ibid. 23-25.
  • Rei describes the establishing of Lady Liverpool’s and Mrs Pōmare’s Māori Soldiers’ Fund in 1915 with the purpose of supporting the Māori Pioneer Contingent and assisting returning soldiers under the banner of the ‘Lady Pomare’s Welfare Committee.’
  • "Ngāti Toa Rangātira Women’s Hockey Club 1930." ibid. 28-30.
  • Co-authored with Nichy Birch.
  • "Te Roopu Wahine Māori Toko I Te Ora/Māori Women’s Welfare League 1951." ibid. 34-38.
  • Rei provides a chronological history of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and writes of its aims and primary concerns.
  • "Te Kōhanga Reo 1982-." ibid. 40-42.
  • Co-authored with Carra Hamon.
  • "Te Kaunihera o Nga Neehi Māori o Aotearoa/National Council of Māori Nurses 1983." ibid. 48-49.
  • Co-authored with Linda Thompson Erihe.
  • "Te Kākano O Te Whānau 1986." ibid. 50-51.
  • Rei writes of Te Kākano o te Whānau which was founded in June 1986 and composed of ‘groups and individuals working in the areas of sexual abuse and related violence’. Rei adds that ‘[i]ts initial objectives were to help Māori and non-Māori groups get access to government funding; to disseminate information about other sources of funding, and about the ethics of and entitlements to funding; and to develop an education and training module on incest, rape and sexual abuse.’
  • Te Murunga Hara: The Pardon. Sidney Mead. Research Report (Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa) No 1. Whakatane, N.Z.: Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa, 1989.
  • Rei was research coordinator.
  • Te Ara Tirohanga: A Guide For Māori Researchers. Wellington, N.Z.: Justice Dept., 1990.
  • Rei has written an entry.
  • Nga Tikanga Tiaki Taonga o Nehera, Customary Māori Land and Sea Tenure. Manatu Māori, 1991. No further details.
  • Rei is the major researcher and editor for this publication.
  • Te Arawa: A Statistical Profile. Manatu Māori, 1991.
  • Rei was contributor and researcher for this publication.
  • Parehounuku: A Brief History Of Ngāti Toa Rangātira. Te Runanga of Toa Rangātira, 1992. No further details.
  • Rei was contributor and researcher for this publication.
  • "Networking Strategies for Māori Librarians." Ann. Conf. of Māori Librarians, Takapuwahia Marae, Wellington, N.Z., 1992.
  • Māori Women and the Vote. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1993.
  • Rei writes in her Preface that the scope of the book covers the years from 1890-1910 ‘when both Māori and Pakeha women were developing national organisations.’
  • 1993 Suffrage Centennial Local History Project Newsletter 5: Māori Aspect Women’s Studies. Tania Rei et al. Wellington, N.Z.: Victoria University of Wellington, 1993.
  • "Ngā Rōpu Wāhine Māori/Māori Women’s Organisations." Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand: Ngā Ropu Wāhine o te Motu. Ed. Anne Else. Wellington, N.Z.: Daphne Brasell; Historical Branch, Dept. of Internal Affairs, 1993. 3-15.
  • Co-authored with Geraldine McDonald and Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku.
  • "The Guides of Whakarewarewa." Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand: Ngā Ropū Wāhine o te Motu. Ed. Anne Else. Wellington, N.Z.: Daphne Brasell; Historical Branch, Dept. of Internal Affairs, 1993. 18-20.
  • Co-authored with Rea Rangiheuea.
  • "Tatau Tatau - Let Us Be United! Māori Women’s Welfare League." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, and Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking-Penguin, 1993. 132-133.
  • Rei provides a history of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and notes its changing roles and fluctuating membership in the decades since its formation in 1951.
  • "Women in Kotahitanga: Voting Rights and Nga Komiti Wahine (Māori Women’s Committees)." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, and Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking-Penguin, 1993. 284.
  • Rei writes of the parliamentary motion put before the Māori Parliament in May 1893 by Meri Mangakahia which called for the voting rights of Māori women. Rei also discusses the emergence of Nga Komiti Wahine - groups of Māori women meeting within their tribes to discuss issues of the day, land, politics and their association with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
  • "Experiences of a Mature Māori Woman Student at Victoria." Red Brick and Blue Stockings. Ed. Beryl Hughes and Sheila Ahern. Wellington, N.Z.: Victoria UP, 1993.
  • "Māori Women and Suffrage." City Voice June 1993. No details.
  • "Report of the International Conference of Indigenous Women." Pu Kaea Apr. 1993.
  • "Nga Wahine O Te Iwi O Whanganui: The Women Of The Whanganui Tribes 1840-Present." Evidence presented to the Waitangi Tribunal, Putiki, May 1994.
  • To be published in the Report of the Whanganui River Claim by the Waitangi Tribunal, 1994.
  • "Māori Women’s Welfare League Conference 1994." Te Puni Kokiri: Ministry of Māori Development Newsletter, May 1994.
  • "Māori Science Graduates, 1994 ." ibid.
  • "World Smokefree Day 1994 Celebrations." ibid.
  • "Report of the Annual Conference of the Māori Women’s Welfare League; May 1994." Pu Kaea June 1994.
  • "Māori Women’s Role in Treaty Negotiations." Treaty Settlements: The Unfinished Business. Geoff McLay. Wellington, N.Z.: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, 1995.
  • "Te Taiawatea Rangitukehu." Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland UP, Internal Affairs, 1995.
  • "Māori Educational Aims." Visions for Māori Education. Comp. Vyletta Tapine and Danica Waiti. Wellington, N.Z.: New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 1997.
  • New Zealand Non-Governmental Women’s Organisations CEDAW Report. Wellington, N.Z.: Action for Women in Aotearoa, 1998.
  • Rei is the co-author and researcher of this publication.
  • "Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori Women, and the State." Feminist Thought in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Differences and Connections. Ed. Rosemary Du Plessis and Lynne Alice. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1998. 198-207.
  • An account of Māori women’s political activism from the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi to the 1993 Māori women’s claim to the Waitangi Tribunal.

    • Papers/Presentations

  • "The Māori Response: United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples." U.N. Discussion Meeting. Copenhagen, Den. June 1995.
  • Tuhourangi Custom Law. Unpublished report, 1995.
  • This is an unpublished report for the Whaka Forest claim on behalf of the claimants to the Waitangi Tribunal.
  • Warahoe. Unpublished submission, Nov. 1995.
  • This report was the closing submission prepared for Warahoe presented to the Waitangi Tribunal. Ngāti Awa claim, November 1995.
  • A Report Of The Socio Economic Impacts Of The Todd Report On Māori. 1995.
  • Rei was the contributor and researcher of this report for Te Matawhanui: Māori staff of Victoria University on behalf of the Associations of Māori staff and students of N.Z. universities.
  • An Overview Of The Contributions By Women Of Ngāti Awa To Ngāti Awa Whanau, Hapu & Iwi Development; Pre 1840-Present. Unpublished report, 1995.
  • This is a report for Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa on behalf of Ngāti Awa to the Waitangi Tribunal.
  • A Review of He Pukaki Māori: A Guide to Māori Sources at National Archives. Wellington, N.Z.: National Archives Te Whare Tohu Tuhituhinga o Aotearoa, Dept. of Internal Affairs & Te Puni Kokiri, 1995.
  • This is a review commissioned by NZLA on the National Archives Te Whare Tohu Tuhituhinga o Aotearoa, Department of Internal Affairs & Te Puni Kokiri, Wellington, N.Z.
  • Measuring the Effectiveness of Programmes for Māori Offenders. Unpublished report. Dept. of Corrections. 1996.
  • This is a literature review and report commissioned by the Department of Corrections.
  • An Evaluative Study of the Te Akoranga Mahi Tahi Programmes in Prisons. Unpublished report. Dept. of Corrections. 1996.
  • This is a report commissioned by the Department of Corrections.
  • Institute of Criminology, Evaluation of the Impact of the 1997 Crime Prevention Package. Unpublished report. 1997.
  • Rei was the co-author/researcher for this scoping report.
  • Current Treaty Issues. Workshop presentation at the NZ Labour Party AGM. Christchurch, N.Z. Nov. 1997.
  • "UNEP-GEP Consultative Meeting on Indigenous and Local Communities, Geneva, 29-31 May 1996." Report of Māori Congress, 2-4 Aug. 1998.