"Recently, I’ve been cleaning up files and what-not, and found papers eaten by silverfish and mildewed because they got wet. And I’ve found letters, which I’d totally forgotten about, between me and Hana Te Hemara, leading up to the presentation, in 1972, of the Māori Language petition, where she was telling me what she was doing in Auckland and suggesting what we might do in Wellington.
I actually didn’t attend the presentation on the steps of Parliament Buildings because I had a six-week-old baby and I didn’t want to take him out in the cold because I didn’t know how long it was going to take. So he and I and my younger brother Campbell stayed at the Ngāti Poneke hall and prepared lunch for the group when they finished the presentation." - Cathy Dewes
Te Moana-ā-Toi | Bay of Plenty | Rotorua | 1970-79 | Māori language petition | Story is by tangata whenua
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