A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir

Māori are the Indigenous people of New Zealand, or “Aotearoa” (as the country is known in their language of te reo Māori). Māori settlers from East Polynesia discovered the previously uninhabited land of New Zealand in the 14th century and were its sole inhabitants until the arrival of European colonizers in the late 18th century. During this period of isolation, Māori culture and society developed independently of other Polynesian peoples, resulting in rich and unique cultural traditions. The arrival of foreign settlers led to an influx of immigrants arriving from Europe, particularly Great Britain, and in 1840, New Zealand was officially annexed into the British Empire. European settlers committed many crimes against the Māori people, including widespread land theft, and Māori were treated as second-class citizens throughout British rule. Many Māori were forced to assimilate into European culture, and not until the 1970s did governmental and social action begin to address historical crimes, inequalities, and systemic racism in New Zealand. Currently, New Zealand’s population includes slightly fewer than 1 million Māori (or 17.1% of the population as of 2024), and approximately 30% of the country’s population has some measure of fluency in te reo Māori (“Māori.” Britannica).

During her political career, Ardern initiated policies to honor the Māori people. Her government made it compulsory for schools to teach the history of New Zealand’s Indigenous people and made the Māori New Year, Matariki, an annual national holiday, the first of Māori origin. In addition, her unanimously selected deputy prime minister, Kelvin Davis, was the first Māori to hold the position.

Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion in the US in 1830, during the Second Great Revival of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period of heightened Christian activity and fervent revitalization of the Protestant Church in the US. Mormon Church doctrines are based on the Christian Bible and the Book of Mormon, a religious text or “third testament” by Smith. The largest denomination of Mormonism is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Mormon faith promotes strict gender roles and a rigid patriarchal family structure, while prohibiting many intoxicants and immodest behaviors.

Ardern was raised in the Mormon faith but left the church due to incompatibilities between her personal values and church doctrines, particularly the church’s inflexible antigay bigotry. Community service, missionary work, and evangelicalism are major cornerstones of the Mormon Church, and it deploys missionaries (typically young men known as “elders”) all over the world. Currently, the church has approximately 17.5 million members, 50% of whom reside in the US (“Statistical Report of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” LDS Church Newsroom, 2024).