Nanaia's untold story - HEARTBREAK THE I KEPT TO MYSELF

How losing a baby boy spurred the former MP on to more labours of love

Our family has always been intensely political. Much of my grounding was from my mother and father, who always took an interest in what they could do to make things better for our community and iwi.

Growing up on our marae in Rähui Pōkeka [Huntly], I had many dreams, from being a hairdresser to a mechanic, a lawyer and an accountant.

But in 1996, I stood against five other mature Māori men for the [Te Tai Hauāuru Māori seat] Labour nomination.

I felt I was an outsider, that all these men had lived their lives and done things, and I was relatively new, with limited life experience by comparison.

I got in as a list MP in 1996, but stood again in 1999 for the Māori seat and held it until 2023.

The induction new MPs get now is fabulous, but then we basically got a few pieces of advice breathe through your nose, look and learn, and operate as if it were to be on the front of the Sunday newspaper.' The rest was learned by doing and, as the youngest, it was sometimes hard to figure out what this place was all about.

This was during the time Tainui was going through its [iwi Treaty] settlement.

It wasn't a positive process and my dad, who was very involved in negotiating, wasn't popular.

There was a view he was pushing me into politics.

He was proud of me, but I remember him saying, 'This is a choice only you can make because if you get in, you'll have to accept responsibility for your choices.' My own tamariki [children], Waiwaia Nukutawhiti, 14, and NiuaCybele, 11, haven't known anything else except Mum in politics. My husband Gannin Ormsby, 55, has kept home a very stable base so our kids have not been negatively impacted by me being in Parliament.

We got together in 2001. It was challenging because we are first cousins and society has a view about that. But in many of our whakapapa Mäori [ancestry], it's not an unusual situation.