It’s been 16 years since ex-New Zealand basketballer Evelyn Taumaunu took the Chair at Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust.  Her leadership alongside others saw the Trust’s profile go from that of a modest organisation to one that triggered a series of persistent bleeps on the national radar.  The upcoming years, she believes, will bring more important developments that will see the Trust continue to shine as a bright icon for Maori.

So who is the woman at the head of New Zealand’s most well-known urban Maori organisation?

Young Evelyn’s iwi links are Ngati Mahanga and Ngati Raukawa.  She grew up in Whatawhata in the Waikato and then Hamilton's Frankton.  Every weekend was a sporting event with a hundred people turning up to play on her father’s tennis court “out the back”.  Evelyn and her sister sold drinks  for pennies that would quickly transform into pineapple chunks.  While summers were for tennis, the brisk Waikato winters saw the court transformed for indoor basketball.

The sporting lifestyle paid off with young Evelyn representing New Zealand in indoor basketball in 1964.  In 1968, she married Jack Taumaunu from Ngati Porou and lived in Christchurch before moving to West Auckland in 1971.  Once again Evelyn took to the courts and represented Auckland for three years running.

Evelyn’s “training” began in the early eighties under the guidance of Maori women like Whina Cooper and June Mariu.  “June introduced me to the Maori Women’s Welfare League,” says Evelyn, “at the time I thought all they did was knit.”  She soon found out there was no knitting going on.  In reference to her training she is clear.  “In those days you didn’t speak, you just listened.”

The league’s push, in 1987, to have Maori netball recognised in the world arena has been a particular interest.  Evelyn believes we have the skills and passion but that the bureaucracy stops progress.  “They say ‘one nation, one team’ but Maori is the nation for us as indigenous people.  As our right we should be there so we’ll continue to fight.”

What about the Trust?  Evelyn confirms that the purchase of the old police station buildings in Henderson and the corporate building in New Lynn was about positioning the Trust strategically in the West.  Regarding the move to other locations in South and East Auckland she says, “Waipareira is like a wheke going out all over Tamaki.”

In the nineties, the Trust’s ‘Highway 16’ training saw 320 trainees through their doors every six months.  Their social services increased “because the need grew all the time,” and the annual Challenge sporting event saw an exciting era of competitive indoor basketball, netball, rugby league and touch throughout West Auckland from 1994 to 2001.

The highlights Evelyn recalls during her time as chairperson include the Trust’s sponsorship of the Maori Sports Awards – it still sponsors the awards - and its investment in the Westfield shopping complex in Massey.  “The benefits help us in our way forward – wonderful!” says Evelyn.

The Trust's Waitangi Tribunal claim in 1998 (WAI414) was a special milestone she says.  It broke new ground with the Trust claiming that a non-tribal group of Maori who have been separated, distanced and disenfranchised from their home Iwi have rights which fall properly under the Treaty of Waitangi.  The tribunal found that non-tribal Maori groups may be entitled to special consideration in terms of the Treaty.  In practice, it meant that the Trust would no longer be overlooked when government agencies developed policies or funding criteria.

What motivates a woman like Evelyn?  First, she proudly lists her seven children and five mokos.  With three sets of twins amongst them so far and another set due to arrive soon, Evelyn feels blessed.

Her international heroes include prominent anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela “who faced struggles and never gave up” and prominent businessman, philanthropist and self-help author Clement Stone for his “positive mental attitude.”

She ponders about what ‘gets her out of bed’ each day.  “I see the happy faces that are around our buildings and our whanau that love just dropping in.”  “It’s our whanau, its our beneficiaries, and because you want to do what is best and what is good.  We have to ask how we can see our whanau moving forward together.”

“I believe the Trust will be a massive presence in five years,” says Evelyn.  “It will be the ‘council’ that other Maori organisations will look up to.”  The old police station building site will be a multilevel building that, while impressive, will reach out to wider community and hold onto its user friendly atmosphere.  Yet she believes it will be upmarket enough that “even the lawyers downtown will want to rent space!”