John Miller

This photograph shows Tuaiwa (Eva) Rickard (Tainui, 1925–1997) and her sister Ripeka, her daughter Angeline and granddaughter Hineitimoana. Rickard is perhaps best known for leading the campaign for the return of Te Kōpua in Whāingaroa Raglan. Te Kōpua is Māori land that was claimed as a military airfield during World War II only to later become a golf course. Rickard opposed further extensions of the golf course over burial grounds. In 1978 on the day of the golf club’s annual tournament, Rickard invited tohunga and supporters to gather at Te Kōpua urupā for karakia, where she and sixteen others were arrested for trespass. By 1991, after many more years of negotiations, the land was finally returned to Māori ownership, and is now home to a community centre and a kōhanga reo.

tohunga ~ skilled person, priest, healer urupā ~ burial ground, cemetery karakia ~ incantation, ritual chant kōhanga reo ~ Māori language preschool

(He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil, 2025)