Donna Awatere Huata

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Infobox officeholder Donna Lynn Awatere Huata (sometimes written Awatere-Huata, previously known as Donna Awatere; born 1949) is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament for the ACT New Zealand Party, activist for Māori causes, and convicted fraudster.<ref>Inquiry into Public Funding of Organisations Associated with Donna Awatere Huata MP — Office of the Auditor-General New Zealand Template:Webarchive. oag.govt.nz. Retrieved on 27 October 2024.</ref><ref name="NZ_Herald_10348000">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life

Donna Awatere was born in Rotorua in 1949, and was educated in Auckland. Her primary area of study was education, particularly educational psychology, but she has also undertaken study in operatic singing and film production.

Her father, Colonel Arapeta Awatere DSO MC, was a prominent member of the Māori Battalion who was later elected to the Auckland City Council. In 1969 he was convicted of the murder of his mistress's lover and sent to jail, where he eventually died.<ref>Awatere, Hinemoa Ruataupare, Awatere, Arapeta Marukitepua Pitapitanuiarangi 1910–1976 Template:Webarchive, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 April 2006</ref>

Activism

From the 1970s Awatere became involved in the Māori protest movement, including the group Ngā Tamatoa. She was a leading protester against the 1981 Springbok Tour, and in 1984 she published Maori Sovereignty, which became a key text in the Māori protest movement. During this period she and fellow Māori activist Ripeka Evans went to Communist Cuba.<ref>Stuff NZ.20 Oct.2007.</ref> She was also involved in feminist politics, and Maori Sovereignty was originally written for the feminist magazine Broadsheet. She was critical of white feminists who ignored issues of race, and expressed the opinion that the problems facing Māori were more important than those facing women and other marginalised groups. In Maori Sovereignty she is generally critical of the established left.

After the publication of Maori Sovereignty, Awatere retired from protest and became a biculturalism consultant for various organisations, including the New Zealand Treasury and the New Zealand Police. She also imported a children's reading programme, which she later developed and promoted through the Pipi Foundation. During this period she married Wi Huata and changed her surname from Awatere to Awatere Huata.

Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

Template:NZ parlbox header Template:NZ parlbox Template:NZ parlbox Template:NZ parlbox Template:NZ parlbox allegiance Template:End Shortly before the Template:NZ election link, Awatere Huata joined the ACT New Zealand party. This surprised many commentators, as ACT was not generally associated with the sort of cause that Awatere Huata had previously supported. In a 2019 interview on Māori Television's current affairs programme Te Ao with Moana, Awatere Huata claimed she joined ACT as she supported its educational policy of the funding following the child, as she believed this would make it easier to establish Kura Kaupapa and Kohanga Reo. She described herself as being at the time too "economically naïve to understand [ACT's agenda] was a neoliberal agenda," and said once discovering this she resolved to stay within parliament and "fight from within". In the interview she described going with ACT as being "one step too far".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awatere Huata was ranked in fourth place on ACT's party list, and stood as a candidate in the Māori electorate of Te Puku O Te Whenua, coming in 4th place. She was not successful in her electorate race, but entered Parliament as a list MP. In the Template:NZ election link, she polled fifth in Template:NZ electorate link but due to her fourth-place ranking on the party's list consequently remained in Parliament. In the Template:NZ election link, she came 4th in Template:NZ electorate link and although she was lowered to fifth place on the list, nevertheless remained in parliament comfortably.

Pipi Foundation Affair

In 2003 Awatere Huata was expelled from the ACT party on allegations of fraud regarding the Pipi Foundation charity, which at the time was under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.<ref>Inquiry into Public Funding of Organisations Associated with Donna Awatere Huata MP — Office of the Auditor-General New Zealand Template:Webarchive. Oag.govt.nz. Retrieved on 26 November 2011.</ref> Subsequently, there were a series of legal battles around Awatere Huata's right to remain in parliament as an independent list MP. These culminated in one of the Supreme Court's first major decisions in 2004 and she was removed from Parliament,<ref>Template:Cite court</ref> giving the ACT Party a new MP, Kenneth Wang until the 2005 New Zealand election.

Awatere Huata was charged by the Serious Fraud Office and later convicted of fraud after taking $80,000 from the Pipi Foundation, a Government funded charity, she had set up as an MP in 1999. The media reported that "Some of the stolen money was used to pay for Awatere Huata's stomach stapling operation and some was used to pay state-integrated school fees for the couple's children."<ref name="NZ_Herald_10348000">Template:Cite news</ref> On 30 September 2005, she was sentenced to 2 years 9 months in jail alongside her husband, Wi Huata, who received 2 years with the ability to apply for home detention. On 16 May 2006, she was released on home detention<ref>Donna Awatere Huata Released From Prison On Home Detention – PhotoTemplate:Dead link. LIFE (16 May 2006). Retrieved on 2011-11-26.</ref> and after her sentence was completed in February 2009, she was able to set up a correspondence teaching centre "The Learning Post".<ref name="Stuff.co.nz_1402511">Template:Cite web</ref> In October 2010 another school she and her husband ran was forced to go into liquidation owing large sums of money. NZQA said that many of the courses were inadequately supported.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The school had only 15 pupils.<ref name="NZ_Herald_10679644">Template:Cite news</ref>

In a 2019 interview with Moana Maniapoto Awatere Huata stated "I am proud of the fact that because of the issues that erupted around me that led to me being expelled from parliament, I actually helped bring down ACT. And that, to me, is a big achievement."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After Parliament

Awatere Huata worked briefly in several roles for New Zealand Māori Council, including administrative support and representing the council at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. This was followed by a role under Mark Solomon at the Māori Carbon Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In mid-March 2022, Awatere Huata and her husband Wi Huata were ordered to vacate their home and farm on disputed land in Maraekakaho near Hastings. Justice Christine Grice ruled in favour of the Te Hua Whenua Trust's trustees, who disputed the Huata's lease of the land for the past 35 years.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This decision reversed a Maori Land Court ruling and was appealed. The Huatas withdrew their appeal in August 2022 and vacated the land as ordered on 2 February 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Notes

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References

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Published works

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