Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan, New Zealand politician, longest-serving female member of the House of Representatives (1967–1996) died she was , 79.

 Tini "Whetu" Marama Tirikatene-Sullivan, ONZ was a New Zealand politician died she was , 79.. She was an MP from 1967 to 1996, representing the Labour Party. At the time of her retirement, she was the second longest-serving MP in Parliament, being in her tenth term of office. She was one of twenty holders of the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour of the country.

(9 January 1932 – 20 July 2011)

Early life

Whetu Marama Tirikatene excelled in dancing, winning the New Zealand Ballroom and Latin American Dancing Champion with her Australian partner Mr K. Mansfield, and was also accomplished in fencing, becoming one of the top four female fencers in the country. She studied for a Ph.D. in Political Science at the Australian National University, with a thesis ‘Contemporary Maori Political Involvement’. While there, she met and married Denis Sullivan, a Ph.D. physics student who later became an associate professor in physics and atrophysics at Victoria University of Wellington.^[1]

Member of Parliament

Parliament of New Zealand
Years	Term	Electorate	Party
1967–1969	35th	Southern Maori	Labour
1969–1972	36th	Southern Maori	Labour
1972–1975	37th	Southern Maori	Labour
1975–1978	38th	Southern Maori	Labour
1978–1981	39th	Southern Maori	Labour
1981–1984	40th	Southern Maori	Labour
1984–1987	41st	Southern Maori	Labour
1987–1990	42nd	Southern Maori	Labour
1990–1993	43rd	Southern Maori	Labour
1993–1996	44th	Southern Maori	Labour

Tirikatene-Sullivan was first elected to Parliament in the Southern Maori by-election of 1967, which was prompted by the death of the long-serving incumbent—her father Sir Eruera Tirikatene. ^[2] Between 1972–1975 she was the Minister of Tourism. She was re-elected by substantial majorities until the 1996 elections, when the Southern Maori electorate was abolished in the transition to MMP. Tirikatene-Sullivan then contested the new Te Tai Tonga electorate, which covered much of the same territory as the old Southern Maori electorate, but she was narrowly defeated by Tu Wyllie of New Zealand First. She subsequently retired from politics.
In 1993, Tirikatene-Sullivan was made a member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest award given by the New Zealand government. She died in Wellington on 20 July 2011.^[3]

Mary Michael Simpson was an American minister. In 1977, she became one of the first women to be ordained a priest by the American Episcopal Church and was the first woman to hold the office of canon.^[1]
(December 1, 1925 - July 20, 2011)

Life and career

Born in Evansville, Indiana, Simpson grew up in Texas City, Texas. She was raised a Methodist but in her senior year of college she converted to the Episcopal faith. She subsequently entered the New York School for Deaconesses and Other Church Workers in New York City from which she graduated in 1949. After graduation she spent six years as a missionary to Liberia. Upon her return to the United States, she became a religious sister and took her life vows with the Order of Saint Helena in Vails Gate, New York in 1956. She was soon after appointed the Head of a girls' school operated by the order, Margaret Hall in Versailles, Kentucky, where she remained for about a decade. She then returned to the convent in Vails Gate to become director of novices.^[2]
In 1973 Simpson became actively involved in the women's movement in the Episcopal Church for the first time after a proposal to allow women priests in the American Episcopal Church had been defeated. She had previously not been a vocal advocate for the role of women in the Church, although she had privately supported the ordination of women. In 1974 she was appointed a Deacon at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City and spent the next three years on the staff of that church working as a pastoral counselor.^[2]
In 1977, Simpson became one of the first women to be ordained a priest in the American Episcopal Church, the first religious sister to be ordained,^[1] and the first female canon.^[3] She was the first ordained woman to preach at Westminster Abbey when she visited London in April 1978.^[4][5] At that time, the Church of England Synod still refused to ordain women. Simpson's visit brought together Anglican groups in favor of women's ordination and led to the founding of the Movement for the Ordination of Women.^[6]
Simpson died in Augusta, GA in 2011 at the age of 85.^[1]

 

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