Elizabeth Kerekere

Elizabeth Anne Kerekere (born 1966 (age 47)) is a New Zealand politician and LGBTQ activist and scholar.

She was elected a member of parliament for the Green Party in 2020, but resigned from the Greens on 5 May 2023, following allegations of bullying within the party.

Kerekere remained in parliament as an independent until the 2023 election.

The couple held their civil union in Te Papa's marae, Te Marae Rongomaraeroa, which Kerekere advised on the design of in the late 1980s.

Kerekere was introduced to activism at a young age.

She was 12 years old when she began babysitting the children of Māori women who held consciousness-raising meetings at their homes, and by age 15 was a junior member of the Māori Women's Welfare League.

As a teenager Kerekere was part of both the Māori and Black Women's movements, involved in a variety of political groups including Young PACIFICA and the Ōtepoti Black Women's Group.

In the 1980s, she also campaigned in the nuclear free and homosexual law reform movements, and joined Māori and Pacific lesbian activist group Ngā Wāhine mō Ngā Wāhine o Te Moananui-a-Kiwa.

Kerekere is a lesbian, and is married to Alofa Aiono, whom she met in 1992.

In 1998, Kerekere and Aiono attended the fifth Gay Games in Amsterdam, which inspired Kerekere to lead a delegation to the sixth Gay Games in Sydney in 2002.

Between 1998 and 2002, Kerekere ran a weekly lotto fundraiser to make sure that Māori, Pacific, and low income lesbians would be represented on the team.

In 2000, in her role of Te Kairuruku, Ngā Kaupapa Māori at Dowse Art Museum she curated an exhibition called Kaumatua Anō te Ātaahua: Honouring the Gifts of our Elders.

Kerekere was born in Gisborne, New Zealand.

Her father, Karauria Tarao "Bison" Kerekere, was an artist and master carver.

He was Māori, and of the Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and Ngāti Oneone iwi.

Elizabeth's mother Erin is Irish, from County Clare and County Tipperary.

Kevin Haunui began running Tīwhanawhana's weekly kapa haka group in Wellington from the mid-2000s, with Kerekere leading political work across various sectors relevant to takatāpui.

Her desire for Māori representation in the Gay Games was also a motivation behind establishing the Tīwhanawhana Trust, which she did in 2001 with support from Māori women's performing trust Tī Kouka.

Kerekere wrote that Tīwhanawhana has aimed "to uplift the mana of takatāpui both through Māori language and culture, and by advocating for takatāpui rights, health and well-being."

Long active in queer youth work, in 2007 Kerekere was involved in the KAHA Queer Youth Hui 2007, for which she created her first takatāpui youth group guidelines.

In 2008 she took on a role with the OUT THERE!

National Queer Youth Development Project, which provided education, resources and support for developing youth groups.

Through this role she organized the KAHA National Queer Youth Hui 2009, travelling nationally and developing relationships with youth groups.

Throughout her studies at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), Kerekere focussed on mana tūpuna (ancestors), mana wāhine (women) and mana takatāpui (the right to live and love regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity) and was the only degree graduate to have a solo exhibition.

In 2015, the Tīwhanawhana Trust board consisted of Kerekere, Haunui, Peri Te Wao, and Heta Timu.

Since its foundation, Tīwhanawhana has become an integral part of Wellington's rainbow communities, often guiding the tikanga – Māori cultural practices – at events and within organizations, informing organizational strategies so that they honor takatāpui, leading waiata, and giving kapa haka performances.

Kerekere identifies as takatāpui and produced the first major research on takatāpui identity with her doctoral thesis in 2017.

She is also an artist and graduated from Eastern Institute of Technology with a bachelor in Māori visual arts (Te Toi o Ngā Rangi).

After graduating from EIT, Kerekere spent the following five years researching the development of takatāpui identity in the 21st century at Victoria University of Wellington, arguing that pre-colonial Māori were sexually experimental people who openly accepted gender and sexual fluidity, and completing a PhD in 2017.

Kerekere stood in the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti electorate for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand in the 2017 New Zealand general election.

She placed third of three candidates with 1,924 votes.

In 2019, Kerekere and Haunui led Tīwhanawhana as one of the host organisations – alongside Intersex Aotearoa and Rainbow Youth – in hosting the ILGA World conference.

Her list placing of 19th was too low for her to enter parliament as a list MP.

Kerekere contested Ikaroa-Rāwhiti for the Green Party again in 2020.

Although she again did not win Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, Kerekere entered parliament ninth on the Green Party's list.

Upon her election, and until her resignation from the Green Party in May 2023, she was appointed the Green Party deputy musterer (whip) and spokesperson for arts, culture and heritage, the community and voluntary sector, health, Māori development, rainbow communities, statistics, and Whānau Ora.

She is a member of the health select committee and the Pae Ora legislation committee.

On 15 March 2022, Kerekere resigned from her position as the Green Party spokesperson for Health and acting spokesperson for COVID-19 Response after she broke COVID-19 isolation rules by flying from Gisborne to Wellington despite being a household contact for COVID-19.

She was also temporarily removed from her position on the Health Select Committee.

The Green Party also notified health authorities of the breach.