Vapi Kupenga and Syd Jackson

Vapnierka Kupenga (Ngāti Porou) dedicated her life to te reo Māori and was a staunch advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples. In the pages of Mana she was Vapi Kupenga, and to her community she was Aunty Vapi. Vapi grew up in a small community near Ruatōria in Te Tairāwhiti, the East Coast, where she was encouraged to ‘speak and think her language’, according to daughter Donette. In her long career Vapi produced and directed films, lectured, hosted talkback radio, and, of course, edited the te reo Māori section of Mana. As a social worker at the Grey Lynn Community Law Centre, she made sure her community knew their rights.

_{Illustration by India Taberner. Based on a photo kindly supplied by Donnette Kupenga.} 

Syd Jackson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu) was a driving force in many Indigenous activist movements in the 1970s and was a sort of editor-at-large for Mana. A devoted unionist, Syd was the president of the University of Auckland’s Māori Students’ Union and helped to start Ngā Tamatoa, an activist group committed to promoting Māori rights and highlighting the New Zealand government’s violations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

_{Illustration by India Taberner. Based on a photo kindly supplied by the Jackson whānau.}