In part six of our video series: Hīkoi: Long Shadow of the March we profile Miriama Rauhihi Ness.
Miriama was a key organiser of the epic land march led by Dame Whina Cooper in 1975, attending the first hui for the hīkoi in Auckland’s Fanshaw Street in 1974.
Responsible for the march’s logistics, Miriama and her team spent eight months visiting every marae on the route, from the top of the North Island where the march began, to Wellington where it finished.
During the march, she scouted ahead to let the next marae know the protestors would be arriving shortly. Travelling with her was her new born son, the now well known musician, Che Fu.
Miriama arrived in Ponsonby as an 18-year-old from Shannon in the early 70’s and still resides in the Auckland suburb.
She meet Che Fu’s father, Tigilau, after she joined the Polynesian Panthers and became an advocate for Pacific people having witnessed their exploitation as workers in central Auckland factories.
