A Teacher with a Fine Record

Te Ao Hou, December 1963, Page 35

A Teacher with a Fine Record Mrs Marewa McConnell, who has just been appointed head teacher of the Ahipara Maori School near Kaitaia, a grade five school of 201 pupils, is perhaps the first Maori woman to achieve a position of this kind. Mrs McConnell was born at Rapaki on the Lyttelton Harbour, and is a member of the Ngai Tahu tribe. She is the elder daughter of the late Eruera and Hana Manihera, and is the granddaughter of the late Hone Taare Tikao, a Ngai Tahu chief of Canterbury and Banks Peninsula renown. For a time she was a pupil teacher at the Lyttelton District High School, and she also attended Canterbury University as a part-time student. She trained at the Christchurch Teachers' Training College and was a member of the students' executive council in her senior year. When she had finished her training at the high school she became a sole teacher at the Port Levy School and later at the Rapaki School, both on the Lyttelton Harbour. In 1935 Mrs McConnell became infant mistress at the Wai-iti Maori School at Lake Rotoit. She married Mr C. A. McConnell, and when the Second World War came, she and her young son returned to her home at Rapaki, where she taught throughout the war years.