Celebrating our firsts, milestones & achievements is vital for wellbeing 
in a local & global atmosphere of change coming at us quick & thick. So it was with great pleasure that LIONZ hosted an evening on 1 March 2025 in Tauranga to mark the fellowship of the first two Māori female orthopaedic surgeons: 
Ruth Tan (Ngāti Hangarau, Ngāti Mutunga) and Teriana Maheno (Ngā Puhi)

We all had a fantastic time catching up over a delicious dinner & drinks

 
 
 
 Ngā Rata Kōiwi commissioned two beautiful korowai, which were then gifted their names by NZOA's Cultural Advisor & kaumātua Ken Te Tau. Please see the separate blog link lower for more great pics & details around how the korowai can be used in the future.

In addition LIONZ commissioned two pounamu pedants from Pounamu Tohunga Whakairo 
(master carver) Nathan Jerry

The pounamu is from Te Whanga o Awarua/Big Bay in Southland. 
Ken gifted Ruth's pounamu with the name Te Whaturei o Te Rau Ora – The Breastplate of Wellness. The Whaturei/breastplate signifies strength and represents a symbolic protective shield. Te Rau Ora connects with Ruth’s mahi to improve health outcomes for Māori in the Waikato.
Teriana's pounamu is called Te Kōuma o te Mātauranga Hāparapara – The Breastplate of Surgical Knowledge.
As with Ruth's, the Kōuma/breastplate signifies strength and represents a symbolic protective shield. Te Mātauranga Hāparapara acknowledges Teriana’s achievements and outstanding academic success.

Ken told us that together with the LIONZ logo, the traditional Māori puhoro design carved into both pounamu are powerful and enduring symbols of strength, identity, resilience, and the ability to adapt in the face of adversity. 
The string bindings on the top of the pounamu represent ‘ngā tuinga tāngata’ surgical sutures and a community (LIONZ) bound together in kotahitanga/unity. 
The notches on the underside represent ‘ngā mātānawe Māori’ surgical scars and represent the inter-generational scaring experienced by iwi Māori due to colonisation, He noted that these scars are a reminder of the duty to improve and deliver better health outcomes for Māori

Ruth:
Becoming NZs first Māori female orthopaedic surgeon is an absolute honour. Whilst I am humbled to be NZs first along side my good friend Teriana I still am astounded that its taken this long for this milestone to occur.  

When I started orthopaedics there were only a handful of female role models - and now training is bursting with aspiring female surgeons in orthopaedics! Much work has been done raising the profile of orthopaedics as a career for females and it's exciting to see more and more females interested in this great specialty. 

Along side female diversity, having more Māori join our workforce is my goal!! 
Having more Māori in orthopaedics is vital to deliver top quality care to our population. I am passionate about increasing numbers of Māori in health care roles and I hope seeing that an average person like myself can achieve this inspires many to follow

 

Teriana:
When George Chan initially suggested doing something to celebrate Ruth and I being the first Māori female orthopaedic consultants in NZ -I initially thought it was unnecessary. I feel very much a run-of-the-mill orthopaedic surgeon (weird! ...still getting used to that title) and as I said on the night, I've always felt like being a female and Māori, while an important part of who I am, has always been something easily integrated into my work and career journey. Realistically those things have probably been more motivating than challenging for me as I've gone through university and surgical training. 
That's not to say the journey to get to this point has been easy, just that for the most part I've been incredibly fortunate to work with amazing colleagues in supportive environments and those aspects have been my lasting memory.  I recognise in this way I've been very lucky and that many others have not been as fortunate and I still think its important to recognise some of the barriers that many minority groups face in this space.  

That all being said, on Saturday night it was awesome to see some of my favourite consultants from different DHB's that I've worked at as a registrar and to catch up with the LIONZ over a couple of wines. More importantly it felt poetic to celebrate something like this alongside Ruth, who I have worked with as a junior, a trainee and now an SMO and she is someone I love and admire greatly. 

It was an absolute privilege to be gifted a beautiful pounamu cut from some incredible south island greenstone and hopefully the korowai named after Ruth and I get to sit on some  amazing shoulders in the coming years- I'm sure they will.  

I was talking to someone about this event the other day and they reminded me that events and celebrations like this are important so that people who need role models or visibility on what having a career in orthopaedics looks like can see that it is entirely achievable and mostly a lot of fun. 
Hopefully Ruth and I prove that you can do whatever you want to in medicine irrespective of gender, ethnicity or sanity

 

 
If you know of any upcoming events, milestones or perhaps have news that could have flown under our radar and should be shared with the wider orthopaedic community, please do get in touch with LIONZ.
Taking time to celebrate as individuals & as a collective is always something we're happy to help out with & we hope to see you at the LIONZ forum 7-8 June in Dunedin

CLICK HERE for John Mutu-Griggs blog on the korowai designs, their creation, names & future use