from 1974 to 1975. She was re-elected by substantial majorities until the 1996 election, when the Southern Maori electorate was abolished in the transition to MMP. Tirikatene-Sullivan then contested the new Te Tai Tonga electorate, which covered much of the same territory as the old Southern Maori electorate, but she was narrowly defeated by Tu Wyllie of New Zealand First. She subsequently retired from politics. In 1970, Tirikatene-Sullivan became the second woman to give birth whilst an MP. She later became the first (both in New Zealand and the Commonwealth) cabinet minister to give birth to a child. On 6 February 1993, Tirikatene-Sullivan was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest civilian award given by the New Zealand government. The same year, she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. She died in Wellington on 20 July 2011. Legacy Tirikatene-Sullivan was the youngest Māori woman elected at the time, she was also the first Māori woman to be a cabinet minister, and the first sitting MP to give birth in New Zealand. In 2016, her portrait was raised alongside Iriaka Ratana in the New Zealand Parliament Buildings at Mātangireia. The portraits were hung with a special ceremony held to commemorate them, with extended family attending the ceremony. Tirikatene-Sullivan's 29 years representing Southern Maori was the longest at the time, and was only surpassed by Annette King's 30 years as the longest-serving women in New Zealand's Parliament. Tirikatene-Sullivan was particularly known for her style of dress, often wearing fashionable outfits rather than the suits many professional women wore at the time. She was a patron of the arts, and she commissioned garments from contemporary Māori artists. These included artists like Sandy Adsett, Para Matchitt, Cliff Whiting, and Frank Davis. The Māori motifs that were incorporated into her outfits was unique for the time, and exposed New Zealanders to a new expression of Māori art. Tirikatene-Sullivan was acutely aware that her style of dress and design choice served as a political statement, and was conscious of the transformative power her style of dress served. As Minister of Tourism, she took her unique style to locations such as Australia's Sydney Opera House, where she exhibited her Tania evening gown featuring a kowhaiwhai motif on a global stage. Her collection of outfits was exhibited at MTG Hawke's Bay at an exhibition titled Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan: Travel in Style. Notes References