Tariana Turia

The Honourable Dame Tariana Turia DNZM
Turia in 2018
1st Minister for Whānau Ora
In office 8 April 2010 – 8 October 2014
Prime Minister	John Key
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Te Ururoa Flavell
2nd Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector
In office 15 August 2002 – 30 April 2004
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Steve Maharey
Succeeded by	Rick Barker
In office 19 November 2008 – 12 December 2011
Prime Minister	John Key
Preceded by	Ruth Dyson
Succeeded by	Jo Goodhew
Minister for Disability Issues
In office 13 June 2009 – 8 October 2014
Prime Minister	John Key
Preceded by	Paula Bennett
Succeeded by	Nicky Wagner
Co-leader of the Māori Party
In office 7 July 2004 – September 2014 Co-leading with Pita Sharples
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Marama Fox
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Labour Party List
In office 12 October 1996 – 27 July 2002
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Te Tai Hauāuru
In office 27 July 2002 – 20 September 2014
Preceded by	Nanaia Mahuta
Succeeded by	Adrian Rurawhe
Personal details
Born	(1944-04-08)8 April 1944
Died	3 January 2025(2025-01-03) (aged 80) Whangaehu, New Zealand
Political party	Māori Party (from 2004)
Other political affiliations	Labour (until 2004)
Spouse	George Turia ​ ​ (m. 1962; died 2019)​
Children	4
Turia's voice recorded April 2017

Dame Tariana Turia DNZM (née Woon; 8 April 1944 – 3 January 2025) was a New Zealand Māori rights activist and politician. She was first elected to Parliament in 1996 as a representative of the Labour Party. 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.

Turia held ministerial offices across two governments. From 1999 to 2004 she was a junior minister in the health, housing and social development portfolios and the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector in the Fifth Labour Government. In the Fifth National Government, she was Minister for Whānau Ora, a health programme she initiated under a confidence and supply agreement between the National and Māori parties, and Minister for Disability Issues. Turia retired as Māori Party co-leader and a member of Parliament at the general election in September 2014.