Ngereteina Puna

Ngereteina Puna OBE (born 1938) is a former Speaker of the Cook Islands Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He is the older brother of Prime Minister Henry Puna.[1]

Puna grew up on Aitutaki. After graduating from Ardmore Teachers' Training College and the University of Auckland in New Zealand, he worked as a teacher.[2] At the 1989 election he was elected as MP for Arutanga-Reureu-Nikaupara.[2] After retiring from politics at the 1999 election he was appointed Speaker of the Cook Islands Parliament, a position he held from 1999 until 2001.[2][3] He went on to serve as Minister of Education in the Cook Islands Party government of Geoffrey Henry from 2011 to 2012.[2]

In 1977, Puna was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.[4] In the 1995 New Year Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community.[5]

Puna is currently based in Auckland, where he works as an advisor to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.[2]

Puna is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[6]

Puna's father, Tuakeu Manuela, was a Member of the Legislative Assembly, and his older brother William Estall also served as a Cabinet Minister.[1]

  1. ^ a b "New PM sworn in today". Cook Islands News. 30 November 2010. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Family gathers". Cook Islands News. 30 November 2010. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  3. ^ "Former Members of the Cook Islands Parliament". Cook Islands Parliament. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  4. ^ Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). "Recipients of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal 1977: nominal roll of New Zealand recipients including Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau". Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 432. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  5. ^ "No. 53894". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 30 December 1994. p. 36.
  6. ^ Alexeyeff, Kalissa (23 March 2009). Dancing from the Heart:Movement, Gender, and Cook Islands Globalization. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824832445. Retrieved 5 July 2019.