Mariameno Kapa-Kingi says she will continue working for Te Tai Tokerau after losing the electorate to Te Pāti Māori candidate Aperahama Edwards.
The former MP said she was disappointed with the result but remained focused on supporting whānau and developing her Te Tai Tokerau party.
“I got a call from a person up in Kaitaia and just updating on what’s happening with the mill up in Kaitaia, and what’s potentially happening for our families that work there. So, I’m still very much inside the things.”
Her defeat follows a turbulent period that included her suspension, expulsion and reinstatement in Te Pāti Māori, before she left the party.
The dispute emerged in 2025 amid a split between Toitū Te Tiriti and Te Pāti Māori. After the party demoted Kapa-Kingi as party whip, her son, Eru Kapa-Kingi, alleged the party operated under a ‘dictatorship model.’
Ferris urges whānau to keep working
Former Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris, who was also expelled from Te Pāti Māori, lost his seat to Labour’s Mananui Ramsden.
Ferris supported Kapa-Kingi during the dispute, criticising the party’s treatment of her.
He was expelled in November 2025 following a meeting of the party’s national executive. At the time, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rāwiri Waititi said: “We can and will not allow anyone in this waka to sabotage the work and sacrifice that so many have given.”
In a social media post following the election, Ferris congratulated Ramsden and urged whānau to continue their work for te ao Māori.
“Whatever the case is whānau just keep the mahi going. All of the positive mahi that we’ve just kept driving, keep driving it. Tō tātou reo, whakatairangahia, ō tātou mahi, mahia, ō tātou kāinga, ō tātou marae, whakatūria. So, just keep being our awesome selves, e te whānau.”
Questions over strategic voting
With votes still being counted, Kapa-Kingi is questioning the strategic voting campaigns promoted by major parties.
She says parties on the left should have coordinated their approaches before encouraging voters to split their electorate and party votes.
Reflecting on those strategies, she says, “We weren’t that smart, collectively, collaboratively,” and questions whether earlier discussions could have produced a different outcome.
“Might we have had sensible, up front, straight up conversations, prior to any set strategies in any party, particularly the left lot, might we have had a deliberate and coordinated result.”
Mokopuna and wāhine Māori at the centre
Kapa-Kingi views her defeat as a three-year pause in her parliamentary career and says lessons from her term will guide her next steps.
She plans to continue building the Te Tai Tokerau party, with mokopuna and wāhine Māori central to its direction and decision-making.
“I think it’s mokopuna in the arms of our wahine, in the arms of our mothers, our grandfathers, our sisters and our aunties. And I think that’s where I’m wired naturally and that’s where I think our future should be wired.
“I think that’s where we should be designing ourselves in our own light, and I think it’s in the voices and the minds of wahine Māori.”
