The Greens have elected new blood in the Tāmaki Makaurau seat, with scientist and long-time environmental advocate Darleen Tana getting the nod.
Tana (Ngāpuhi) previously stood in the Northland seat during the 2020 election and will have her hands full, with the Tāmaki Makaurau likely to be a battleground electorate between Labour and Te Pāti Māori.
Tana was born in Northland and studied to become a scientist. She has more than 30 years of experience in senior leadership roles across corporate business and grass-roots community spheres in both Europe and back home in Aotearoa.
Tana says she plans on using that knowledge for the betterment of Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau.
“I felt very strongly the need to understand how things were working within taiao, so I went on to study sciences, chemistry, and industrial and then worked as an environmental scientist.”
“Some of my projects were things like aligning satellites with EUTELSAT, the European satellite company, which is the equivalent of NASA but in Europe, with satellites in Africa so that we could bring broadband to those countries.”
“The journey is more of a continuation of what I’ve been doing most of my life, which is ki te whakamana i ngā whānau, ngā hapū, ngā hapori.”
Tana has a battle on her hands to just be relevant to voters, let alone win the seat from incumbent Peeni Henare, a high-ranking minister within the Labour Government and Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp, chief executive at Manurewa Marae, with a record of advocating for Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau.
She says she believes that she has something to offer the voters of Tāmaki Makaurau, and while it’s a competition between the trio, at the end of the day, whānau is whānau.
“The thing that I would ask people to remember is that we are actually all whanaunga, aye? And even though we are all aspiring to go into Parliament, we are Māori; we are whānau.”
“The journey is more of a continuation of what I’ve been doing most of my life, which is ki te whakamana i ngā whānau, ngā hapu, ngā hapori.”