Dame Tariana Turia DNZM (née Woon; 8 April 1944 – 3 January 2025) was a New Zealand Māori rights activist and politician.

She won the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate in 2002 and broke from Labour in 2004, resigning from Parliament during the foreshore and seabed controversy.

Turia returned to Parliament in the resulting by-election as the first representative of the newly formed Māori Party, which she led for the next decade.

[18] In her maiden statement on 26 February 1997, she acknowledged Labour's defeated Māori electorate candidates Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan, Peter Tapsell, Koro Wētere and Matiu Rata and asserted the following statement on tino rangatiratanga (Māori self-determination):[19]The Declaration of Independence is an international declaration that recognises the sovereignty of the independent tribes of Aotearoa.

It was the forerunner to the Treaty of Waitangi, and it has a flag to symbolise tribal rights to trade as independent nations, which has been ignored for years by successive New Zealand Governments and never been acknowledged as an important part of our history by the education system.

Of that speech, the Dominion newspaper wrote "Parliament's real radical stands up... and declined to tiptoe around Pakeha sensitivities.

[4] Turia's outspokenness, the Dominion wrote, was a hindrance to Labour's bid to reclaim office at the next election because her actions "fed suspicions that an unacceptable radicalism persists in the party.

"[23] New parties centring on Māori interests formed after the breakup of the National–New Zealand First coalition government, but Turia remained with Labour.

After losing selection in the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate to her colleague Nanaia Mahuta,[24] Turia was re-elected as a Labour list MP in the 1999 election (ranked 16th).

Mahuta changed electorates for the 2002 election; Turia won selection in Te Tai Hauāuru and the seat as an electorate-only candidate.

[28] In a subsequent speech, she set out her view that "self-governance, as being the choice of self-determination, for me means the right to participate in and control the processes through which decisions that affect our lives are made.

"[29] Turia championed partnership with and devolution to mana whenua in the delivery of State health and education services, but was not always successful.

[32][33] She was also scrutinised for a telephone call she made to the chief judge of the Māori Land Court about a case involving one of her iwi.

Along with many of her supporters in Te Tai Hauāuru, she claimed that Labour's proposal amounted to an outright confiscation of Māori land.

On 30 April 2004, after a considerable period of confusion about Turia's intentions, she announced in a speech at Rātana Pā that she would resign from the Labour Party and from parliament on 17 May.

[43] For her efforts in splitting from Labour to establish the Māori Party, she was named political journalist John Armstrong's 2004 politician of the year.

She pledged to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act if her party was able to form a government but expressed a desire not to enter a coalition agreement with Labour.

[53] National won most seats overall and agreed to form a minority government with support from the Māori Party as well as ACT New Zealand and United Future.

[59][60] The replacement legislation restored access to the courts enabling iwi (tribes) and hapū (sub-tribes) to seek customary titles and Turia encouraged them to do so.

[65] In 2010, the National and Māori Parties announced Whānau Ora, a taskforce designed to streamline social service resources.

[66] She led the government's Smokefree 2025 policy which was launched in 2011 and included plain packaging and increased excise taxes for cigarettes.

She supported the development of the Crown apology for actions at Parihaka as part of its Treaty of Waitangi claim settlement with Taranaki iwi in 2015.

[79][80] She endorsed Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, the Māori Party candidate, for the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate in the 2020 general election.

On 17 February 2022, Turia accused prime minister Jacinda Ardern of having Nazi sympathies on Radio New Zealand, in an interview about the Sixth Labour Government's response to the 2022 Wellington anti-vaccination protests.

[64] Following the 2023 New Zealand general election, Turia expressed support for the incoming Sixth National Government's plan to scrap Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority).

[89][90][91] New Zealand First MP Shane Jones criticised protocol at Turia's tangihanga (funeral), which prohibited tributes from people not speaking te reo Māori.

[93] In the 2015 New Year Honours, Turia was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a Member of Parliament.