‘Shy girl’ was first Maori Miss NZ
Moana Whaanga, the first Maori to be crowned Miss New Zealand and the first Kiwi to compete at Miss Universe, died on Wednesday, aged 82, a week after suffering a stroke.
Born Moana Manley, she was also a champion swimmer who was selected for the Commonwealth Games.
She entered the 1954 Miss New Zealand pageant to raise money for her swimming club and was surprised when she won.
“I was a very shy girl. The only thing that I had going for me was that I was a swimmer, and that took a lot of the shyness away. I remember this time being very special,” she told Mana magazine in 2016.
The Maori world was so proud of their first beauty queen that many groups organised a huge fundraising drive to send Whaanga to the 1954 Miss Universe contest in California.
She married Maui Whaanga, from Nuhaka, and they spent many years teaching together at rural schools. She was a loving mother to Moana Iti, Moerangi, Mark Mel and Mia. She had 16 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Mel said his mother would be missed.
“Mum was a private person. She loved her whanau, she loved New Zealand. You could ask if she was a Maori first, or a Kiwi first or a mother first. Mum encompassed all roles and brought everyone together.”
A service will be held tomorrow at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Chapel, 19 Redoubt Rd, Manukau, Auckland.
— Rotorua Daily Post