With almost three decades in Parliament as a Labour MP, Nanaia Mahuta has seen and experienced it all. First elected in 1996, she was just 26 and the youngestever successful female candidate at the time.
What followed was a 27-year tenure, where Nanaia became the first wahine in government to wear moko kauae (traditional Māori facial tattoo), the first woman to be appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, first female Māori Development Minister and the longest-serving female MP to date.
She’s a stalwart of Waikato-Maniapoto and the electorate she has represented faithfully for many years, and acknowledges the shift of support to Māori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who won the seat at the October election.
But the 53-year-old mother also found both her personal and professional lives the repeated subject of intense scrutiny, criticism and judgement.
Sitting down with the Weekly, Nanaia shares, in her own words, deeply