Photos: Sacha Kahaki.
Lady Tureiti Moxon has always been a leader. The eldest of 12 children, from an early age she was responsible for helping with her siblings on their small dairy farm in the rural Hawke’s Bay settlement of Mohaka.
“When you’re the oldest of 12, you can’t help but be the boss,” laughs Tureiti, 68. “Someone has to tell everyone what to do!”
Tureiti remembers waking at dawn to bring the cows into the shed for her mother to milk before going back to sleep, then waking again to make toast and porridge for her siblings’ breakfast.
“After that, my mother would get the cream from the farm. She’d put it on my horse and I’d take it down the road, then I’d go to school.”
Early on, Tureiti learned the importance of taking care of each other.
“Home was not a place to play, it was a place to work. A place, where everyone had an important role to play in the health and wellbeing of everyone else.”
It’s a value that still drives the work she does today as a leading Māori health campaigner and managing director of Te Kōhao Health, which opened Taakiri Tuu Wellness and Diagnostic Centre last year.
She recalls, “There was no government funding to support us, so we fundraised for it. We created a joint venture with Pacific Radiology to support Māori to be diagnosed earlier.
“A lot of our people die young because doctors fail to diagnose them early enough. So, we’ve created a space with people in house able to make decisions to send patients immediately for an X-ray, CT scan or ultrasound in the same place.”
Late last year, Tureiti also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Waikato for her contributions to the health sector.
It’s a long way from the child who advisors cautioned at school she wouldn’t achieve her career dreams.
“A careers advisor tole me that with my marks, I would never be a social worker.”
Instead, Tureiti joined the international song-and-dance troupe Song of Asia as one of 60 people from 14 countries representing four different religions.
“What that did for me was open up my whole view that the world is not just made up of two groups of people, Māori and Pākehā,” she tells. “It opened my eyes that transformational change can happen.”
After three years of performing, she returned to New Zealand. Despite the unsupportive advice at school, she started as a youth worker at Napier’s YMCA.
“I ran an after-school programme for homework and got a teacher to work with the kids to help them see education as the key to their future,” she explains. “Some of those young ones have come back to me all these years later and they’re doing great. It’s amazing to see how saying the right thing at the right time can lift people to a different place.”
It was around this time Tureiti met her Pākehā husband Sir David Moxon.
She felt quickly taken by his interest in learning te reo Māori and how their values aligned. “We’re 44 years married now.”
David became the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.
In the 2014 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the Anglican Church and was made Knight of the Order of St John in the 2024 Special Honours.
Together, they have weathered many storms. Their first child, Kiri, had nephrotic syndrome that impacted her kidneys, and doctors told them she wouldn’t live past two years old.
“That’s where my interest in the health system grew from,” says Tureiti. “It’s been a long journey but she’s 43 now.”
After decades of dedication to the health sector, Tureiti would be well within her rights to retire. But she scoffs at the suggestion. “Have you seen any Māori retire? This is a lifetime thing – our responsibilities and obligations to our people never stop.”
However, Tureiti is happy with all she has achieved and feels determined to do even more.
“I’m proud of my husband, our four children and our four beautiful mokopuna. I feel proud that they know who they are and can all kōrero Māori,” she smiles. “When I look back all those years ago, I see how a moemoeā [dream] turned into reality.
“In terms of my work, I am proud that we have been able to grow and develop our own people to have a huge workforce at the top of their game.”
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