RSS feed112 Free Voices: Pauline Tangiora, Aotearoa’s inspiration
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Pauline Tangiora is an activist and campaigner whose work embraces both the local and the global. A Maori elder from Aotearoa (New Zealand), she has worked for four decades to strengthen community-ties among the Maori, while participating in international peace initiatives and schemes to raise the profile of indigenous peoples.
Before the war in Iraq, she traveled to the country to spend time with Iraqi women and children as the conflict loomed. “With 40 odd wars going on as we are talking,” she says, “we have to believe in peace. Otherwise I don’t want to live.”
“Pauline Tangiora is an extraordinary and diverse personality, involved with human rights, spiritual leadership, conflict resolution and peace,” says dropping knowledge Manager of Nominee Relations Barbara Lutz. “I am personally overjoyed that she has agreed to bring her ‘basket’ to the Table.”