Hon. Tetangi Matapo
Hon. Tetangi Matapo
Party: Democratic Party
Term: 2014-18; 2018-22; 2022 - current
Electorate: Tamarua Constituency
Province: N/A
Political Status: Member of Parliament
Tetangi Matapo (born 3 October 1965)[1] is a Cook Islands politician and member of the Cook Islands Parliament. She is a member of the Cook Islands Democratic Party.
Matapo was born on Mangaia and educated at Mangaia School and Mangaia College.[1] She studied to be a teacher at the University of the South Pacific, graduating with a Bachelor of Education and a Masters of Education.[1] She worked as a teacher and later deputy principal at Mangaia School.[2][3] She was elected to Parliament in the 2013 Tamarua by-election.[4] In April 2013 she attended the inaugural Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Wellington, New Zealand.[5]
At the 2014 election, she lost the seat on the night to the Cook Islands Party‘s Tokorua Pareina, but regained it in an electoral petition.[6] In 2015, she was appointed opposition spokesperson for Education and Internal Affairs.[7] In 2016, she was part of the Cook Islands’ delegation to the second Pacific Parliamentary Forum.[8]
She was re-elected at the 2018 election.[9] Shortly after the election she was sent to the 2018 Presiding Officers and Clerks Conference in Wellington as “interim Deputy Speaker”, despite there having been no election for the position.[10] In December 2019 she was part of a protest by women MPs to permit the wearing of ei katu (floral crowns) in Parliament.[11] In February 2020 she was appointed Democratic Party spokesperson for Business, Trade and Investment Board, Education and Justice.[12]
She was re-elected at the 2022 Cook Islands general election.[13]