Obit: Mahinarangi Tocker in NZ (15 April 2008)

Subject: Obit: Mahinarangi Tocker in NZ
From: Little Robyn
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 02:22 AM

One of NZs folk characters has died.
This report is from the Gay News:
Openly lesbian Maori singer and songwriter Mahinarangi Tocker died this morning in North Shore hospital after a massive asthma attack last week.

Tocker and her guitar were frequent and popular additions to LGBT fundraisers and events like Auckland's Big Gay Out, and she has also performed at Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. She also gave lectures around New Zealand about the use of music and creativity to boost learning and self-esteem, and was an adult literacy tutor, writer and poet.


For her services to music, she became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2008 New Year's Honours List.


Tocker, 52, was comfortable and open to talking about her sexuality, and in the early '90s was one of the original guests on TVNZ's LBGT current events programme Express Report, the forerunner to Queer Nation. In 2001, she took part in the television campaign Like Minds Like Mine to de-stigmatise mental illness.


GayNZ.com understands a massive asthma attack last week left her without oxygen for several minutes. Family and friends were summoned to say goodbye as she was cared for in hospital. She leaves behind her long-term partner and one daughter.

Mahinarangi was a frequent performer at the Auckland Folk Festival and she has made several CDs of her songs.
There's a photo halfway down this page.

Many NZ folk are in mourning tonight.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Obit: Mahinarangi Tocker in NZ
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 02:36 AM

That is very sad news. On my one-and-only (so far) visit to NZ some years ago I bought a CD of Maori songs - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is the featured singer but Mahinarangi Tocker is also prominent. The songs are lovely and the voices wonderful.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Obit: Mahinarangi Tocker in NZ
From: Little Robyn
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 02:56 AM

Mike Moroney has put the NZfolk tributes to Mahinarangi on the Kiwifolk blog page here.

Robyn

Subject: RE: Obit: Mahinarangi Tocker in NZ (15 April 2008)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 04:10 PM

Mahinarangi has been taken to her home marae where she will lie in an open casket while her family and friends sit and talk and sing to her. On Saturday they will carry her to the burial ground for her final resting place.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Obit: Mahinarangi Tocker in NZ (15 April 2008)
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 01:51 PM

Rest in Peace...