Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui

This biography is largely based on published biographies written by Rina’s daughter, Karin Beatson. Other secondary sources are listed in the bibliography.

Class of 1948

Family History and Childhood

Rina Winifred Rōpiha was born in Auckland on 6 April 1923 to Rhoda Winifred Te Tūruki Walker of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and her husband, Tipi Tainui Rōpiha of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne. (2) She had a younger brother Peter. (3)

Both her parents were offspring from mixed marriages. (3) Her father attended Waipāwa District High School and then went on to Te Aute College in 1910 on a Te Makarini Scholarship. He served in France during World War I with the NZ Field Artillery and, on his return, studied at Canterbury College, where he successfully passed his surveyors exams and was employed as a qualified surveyor with the Department of Lands and Survey. He eventually became the first Māori to be Secretary of the Department of Māori Affairs, a position he held for nine years until his retirement in 1957. He was not an admirer of the welfare state and wanted Māori to be economically independent and saw education as the key. He was an Anglican lay reader and had a keen interest in language. (4) Rina’s mother, who had worked as a nurse among the Māori in remote rural areas prior to their marriage on 4 April 1922, was a perfectionist and ran a highly efficient household with strict discipline. (2, 4)

Rina and Peter had a middle-class upbringing in the suburb of Remuera. Their parents believed it was important for Māori to get the best European education to cope with the modern world. They were raised as Pakeha, had an English nanny until Rina was eight, and enjoyed a variety of after-school activities. For Rina, these included elocution, ballet, ballroom dancing and piano. (3) Her parents made sacrifices to provide for their education, and Rina was expected to study hard and do well. In particular, she was expected to be a leader of the Māori people. She adored her father and would occasionally visit the marae with him. The Te Ara biography, written by her daughter, recounts that she was at times uncomfortable with being held up to Māori as an example. (2)

Otago University School of Medical

Rina commenced her university studies in Otago in 1941 and was successful in passing her medical intermediate subjects. (5, 6) She was accepted into medicine in 1943. At the start of her second year, on 21 February 1944, she married Ian Leslie Moore, a law student from Nelson. Ian, born on 6 March 1919 to Edward and Ruby Moore, was four years older than Rina. (7) The Moores were an established Nelson family with a long history of serving the legal needs of the Nelson/Tasman area through the Pitt & Moore law firm, established in 1847 and still operating today. (8)

Rina and Ian had their first child, Karin, in August the following year. Finances were stretched, but both families provided support and practical assistance. Her mother, Rhoda, stayed in Dunedin for six months to help her daughter continue her studies.

Rina successfully passed her first professional exams at the end of 1944, (9) her second exams at the end of 1945, (10) her first section of the third exams in March 1947 (11) and her second section in May 1948. (12) Rina did her clinical sixth year at Wellington Hospital and would commute over from Nelson during the week while her husband and two-year-old daughter stayed with her mother-in-law, Ruby Moore, in Nelson. Karin recalls in her Te Ara biography: (2)

It was a difficult year, particularly in an era when women were encouraged to focus on the home and family. The Moores were a close-knit extended family, and Ruby was an important mentor to Rina.

Rina graduated in the class of 1948 with her MB, ChB, the first Māori graduate in New Zealand. (3)

The Gisborne Herald records the comments of Bishop Bennett, the first Māori bishop of Aotearoa, on Rina’s accomplishment: (13)

New Zealand’s first Māori woman doctor will take her degree next month …… an illustration of the ability of members of the Māori race to succeed in any pursuit. Bishop Bennett said Mrs Moore studied hard to within a few days of having a child and went back to her studies as soon as possible afterwards, leaving her husband to look after the baby on the Plunket system.

Early Career

No information could be found on Rina’s completion of any house surgeon training following her graduation. In 1949, she commenced work as an assistant medical officer at Ngāwhatu Mental Hospital in Nelson, where she worked primarily with female patients. She worked here for the next fifteen years and was the medical officer in charge of the women’s section for some of this time.

During this time, she endeavoured to break down public fears and prejudices about ‘madness’. She believed psychiatric patients needed to be accepted within the community and helped to establish links between hospital and community groups. (2, 3)

Rina’s interest in psychiatry began during her student days when they visited Seacliff Mental Hospital for part of their psychiatric training. She had an ability to connect with people who were troubled, had great compassion for the sick and handicapped, and had a special gift for helping those who were unable to help themselves. (4)

During these early years of her medical career, she and Ian had three further children: Christopher (deceased), Nicholas, a Nelson barrister and solicitor, and the youngest, John, born in 1955 (deceased). Her husband Ian remarried following Rina’s death and died in 2005.

Mid-Career

Rina was intelligent, vivacious, and articulate, qualities which made her begin to be sought after as a speaker. In the late 1950s, she was invited to participate in a series of hui with young Māori leaders, discussing issues such as urban migration, high crime rates, mental health, and education. With maturity, she realised like many Māori migrants to the cities, she had missed out on much of her Māori heritage. Despite many attempts, she never mastered the Māori language. (3)

In 1960, she was invited as one of the five speakers to the first South Island young Māori leaders conference in Christchurch and spoke on the topic ‘Health trends in modern Māori society’. (15) Later that year, she was made an inaugural member of the Māori Health Committee formed by the Board of Health, one of only two Māori doctors. (16)

Rina was outspoken on the controversial issue of family planning. She strongly advocated education about sex and relationships in schools and was one of the first doctors in New Zealand to prescribe the contraceptive pill in the early 1960s. (2) In 1961, Rina prepared a paper on family planning. The Māori Women’s Welfare League responded back to the Māori Health Committee on the paper, stating that it was not unanimous in supporting family planning among Māoris. It was concerned about the high infant mortality rate among Māori children but felt this was more a matter of health education. (17)

She was also actively involved in promoting higher standards of education for young Māori. In 1962, she was involved in a national campaign for raising funds for the Māori Education Foundation as the Māori representative on the Nelson district committee. (18)

Rina, after fifteen years at Ngāwhatu, resigned. She had men promoted above her, her health was poor, and her career prospects were restricted by the lack of a postgraduate degree, which would have required training overseas. This would have been impractical with her husband tied to his Nelson legal firm and having a young family of four children. She received a scholarship that assisted her in traveling overseas to Asia and Europe in 1963. Kathmandu and Moscow were included on her itinerary.

Private Practice

On her return from her overseas travels in 1963, Rina set up a Family Advisory Clinic (a private psychiatric and counselling clinic) in the family home. Karin recollected in her biography: (3)

Her children remember how intrusive this set-up was. They would come home from school to find their playroom (now the waiting room) full of patients and Rina in consultation in the living-room.

Rina was also supportive of promoting Māori culture and history. In 1965, she was a cast member in the ‘O New Zealand’ festival of the anthology ‘Where the Māori Speaks’, which highlighted Māori historical treasures, including early speeches by Māori chiefs who opposed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and sent petitions to Queen Victoria. (19)

In 1966, Rina was diagnosed with cancer of her breast and lymph nodes. She declined to have a mastectomy, which was the norm at that time but did have the tumour removed, followed by radiotherapy treatment. From this time onwards, she was fearful of dying in pain and suffered periods of depression.

As she was able to, Rina continued with her private practice and with public speaking. In one address she made to the Mothers’ Union diocesan conference in Christchurch, she said that acceptance of intermarriage by both Māori and Pakehas had been one of the saving graces of New Zealand: (20)

The Press, 21 March 1969 (20)

The 4^th International Congress of Social Psychiatry was held in Jerusalem, Israel, from 21 to 26 May 1972 with the theme “Social Change and Social Psychiatry”. The early international leaders of Social Psychiatry, like Rina, favoured more psychiatry-based community rather than psychiatric hospital-based solutions. (21) Rina wrote four papers, which were accepted and which she was able to deliver despite her health issues. (22) They covered issues relevant to both Māori and other ethnic minorities as well as lower socio-economic groups worldwide: urban migration, education, health, and mental health. (2, 3)

In 1974, she had an article published in Mental Health Society on ‘Violence in the South Pacific’ where she explained Tapu Laws and the Law of Makutu. The abstract for the article reads: (23)

Tapu religious laws kept Māoris in order. The Chiefs themselves were Tapu persons but by 1840 their power was broken. Māoris became law-abiding rural people because of the need to retain a good image before extended family group where there is love, affection and belongingness which made him want to conform to the standards of society. Exposure to Western civilisation has made him lose the family communal life and enter the individualistic life of the West. He suffered a social breakdown. Laws on pieces of paper were not ideas and attitudes given him by his people. Reinforcement of laws is carried out by police who he does not know as individuals and does not like as a group. He began to commit offences of violence against persons including homicide, manslaughter, assault, and rape. The Māori is now moving from offences of violence towards persons to offences against property, a type of crime which requires thought and planning.

Rina, in this same article, talks about ‘by believing something strongly enough it will come true’ in relation to Tapu Laws. She believed the sympathetic nervous system was affected, and eventually, the brain system ceased to function so that death occurred if the offence was serious enough that the person would expect death. She gives the example of one of their high chieftainess, Te Puea, who was suffering from chronic cardiac failure but was not exhibiting signs of it being at the critical stage – Rina felt that based on the physical manifestations of the condition, she would live another six to twelve months. Te Puea had travelled 500 miles to her parent’s home in Wellington and asked her friends to gather there because she was going to die in seven days’ time. One wonders what the effect words spoken by Te Puea to Rina at this time had on her as a newly qualified doctor and the first Māori woman doctor: (23)

I with my painted face and fingernails, did not impress her. ‘I am disappointed in you’ was all she said. My brother was at a dance. She travelled there to say ‘I am going to die in seven days time. I have come to say goodbye.’ And die she did in seven days.

Further Ill Health

In 1975, Rina suffered a mild stroke and shortly after, it became apparent that her cancer had returned, this time in her brain. She died on 28 November 1975 at the age of fifty-two. (22)

In her obituary, it states:

Before an illness 10 years ago, Dr Moore took an active interest in community affairs and was especially concerned with problems facing Māori people. She was invited to address gatherings in many parts of New Zealand……Dr Moore was a strong advocate of social reform and placed her views before many Nelson organisations, and schools in the face of some controversy.

In 1967, as part of the Royal Society Te Apārangi 150^th anniversary celebration, they published a series called ‘150 Women in 150 Words’ to celebrate women’s contributions to expanding knowledge in New Zealand. Rina, New Zealand’s first Māori trained doctor, was featured in this group of women. The 150 words included: (25)

She was also a dynamic social force, attempting to break down the stigma attached to mental illness, advocating for sex education in schools, and becoming one of New Zealand’s first doctors to prescribe the birth control pill. 

Bibliography

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2. Beatson K. Moore, Rina Winifred: Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; Dictionary of New Zealand Biography; 2000 [23.05.2023]. Available from: https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5m56/moore-rina-winifred
3. Beatson K. Rina Moore. In: Macdonald C, Penfold M, Williams W, editors. The Book of New Zealand Women Ko Kui Ma Te Kaupapa. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books Ltd.; 1991. p. 772.
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15. Young Māori Leaders to Meet at Weekend. Press. 1960 17.08.1960.
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17. Planning Families Māori League’s Attitude. Press. 1961 15.07.1961. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19610715.2.155
18. Drive for Funds for Education of Māori Press. 1962 20.02.1962. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19620220.2.243
19. “The Press” Preview of the Festival O New Zealand. Press. 1965 17.02.1965. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19650217.2.180
20. Intermarriage is “A Saving Grace” of N.Z. Press. 1969 21.03.1969. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19690321.2.19.3
21. Ferreira AG. History of WASP: World Association of Social Psychiatry; [29.05.2023]. Available from: https://waspsocialpsychiatry.org/history/
22. Obituary Dr R. Moore. Press. 1975 29.11.1975. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19751129.2.46
23. Violence in the South Pacific. Mental Health and Society. 1974:5.
24. Find: Find A Grave; 2023 [30.05.2023]. Available from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/161743804/rina-winifred-moore
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