Nanaia Mahuta

Nanaia Cybele Mahuta (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand from 2020 to 2023.

In October 2022, Mahuta became the Mother of the House, having served continuously in the House of Representatives since the 1996 general election.

She lost her seat in parliament in the 2023 general election.

Mahuta was born into the kāhui ariki in Auckland, the daughter of Sir Robert Mahuta, who was the adopted son of Māori king Korokī.

Affiliated to Ngāti Mahuta, her father was the elder brother of the Māori queen Te Atairangikaahu, and she is a first cousin of current Māori monarch Kiingi Tūheitia.

Elected to Parliament at the age of 26, Mahuta has had a long and influential career in the Labour Party.

She was Minister of Local Government, Minister of Youth Development and Minister of Customs in the Fifth Labour Government and Minister of Local Government and Minister for Māori Development in the Sixth Labour Government.

She is the first female MP to wear a moko kauae (a traditional Māori facial tattoo) and is the first woman to serve as New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mahuta was born in Auckland in 1970 to Eliza Raiha Edmonds, and (later Sir) Robert Mahuta.

Some of her early life was spent in Oxford, where her father was undertaking PhD study.

She was educated at Kura Kaupapa Rakaumanga school in Huntly and later at Waikato Diocesan School for Girls as a boarder.

Firstly she studied law at the University of Waikato, but failed three of her seven papers and had to drop out.

She then studied social anthropology and Māori business development at the University of Auckland, graduating with an MA (Hons).

The title of her 1995 master's thesis was Te poukai o Waahi : an historical background to the Waahi poukai.

She also worked at the university as a researcher/archivist.

She has strong links to the Māori King Movement.

Her father, Sir Robert Mahuta, was the adopted son of King Korokī and the elder brother of Māori Queen Te Atairangikaahu.

She is related to the Māori monarch, Kīngi Tūheitia.

Mahuta's sister, Tipa Mahuta, is a long-serving Waikato regional councillor and the co-chair of the Māori Health Authority.

Mahuta is married to William Gannin Ormsby, her first cousin.

The couple have had three children together (the first died shortly after birth), plus four children from Ormsby's previous relationship.

She contested Te Tai Hauāuru (the replacement seat for Western Maori) in the 1996 elections but lost to New Zealand First's Tuku Morgan.

However, with a list ranking of 8, Mahuta was elected as one of the first New Zealand list MPs.

After completing her first term as a list MP, Mahuta contested Te Tai Hauauru in the 1999 election, and won.

Mahuta was aged 26 years and 52 days when she was elected (twelve days younger than Deborah Morris) and was the youngest member of the New Zealand House of Representatives until the election of Darren Hughes in 2002.

She transferred to and won the new Tainui electorate for the 2002 election and held it in 2005.

That seat was renamed Hauraki-Waikato ahead of the 2008 general election.

She has held the seat since.

In 2016, she acquired a Māori facial tattoo (moko kauae) and became the first female MP to wear one in the New Zealand parliament.

Other Māori women in parliament—Metiria Turei of the Green Party and Marama Fox of the Māori Party—spoke of their support.

Mahuta joined the Labour Party at the request of retiring Western Maori MP Koro Wētere and after hearing Helen Clark speak in Auckland.

She was also encouraged to participate in politics by members of the Māori Women's Welfare League.

In 2018, she was listed as one of the BBC's 100 Women. Domestically, she was a proponent of the Three Waters reform programme and co-governance.

Mahuta was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 6 November 2020 to 11 November 2023.

She received international recognition as the first woman (and first Māori woman) to hold the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

Her wearing of a moko has been widely praised as a powerful symbol of Indigenous women.

Mahuta took a generally progressive platform as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

She called on the Israeli government to stop evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in illegally-occupied East Jerusalem.

Mahuta introduced the Russia Sanctions Act 2022, which after unanimous approval imposed various sanctions targeting Russian elites and assets deemed to be complicit in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As part of New Zealand's membership of the Five Eyes alliance, she condemned the disqualification of pro-democracy Hong Kong legislators as a breach of Hong Kong's autonomy and rights under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.