Maere Tekanene is a former

I-Kiribati The Micronesians or Micronesian peoples are various closely related ethnic groups native to Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They are a part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, which has an Urheimat in Taiwan. Ethno ...

politician, and part of the

Pillars of Truth Pillars of Truth ( gil, Boutokaan te Koaua; BK or BTK) was a political party in Kiribati, until 2020 when it merged with the Kiribati First Party to create the Boutokaan Kiribati Moa Party. The party was created through a split in the Natio ...

party, who was the

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the

South Tarawa South Tarawa ( gil, Tarawa Teinainano) is the capital and hub of the Republic of Kiribati and home to more than half of Kiribati's population. The South Tarawa population centre consists of all the small islets from Betio in the west to Bonriki ...

constituency from 2011, and the Education Minister from 2012, until losing her seat at the 2015–16 parliamentary election.

Career

Prior to entering the political sphere, Maere Takanene worked as a teacher at the Government school in

. She was a consultant for the Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women in their report on the status of women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 2003. Between 2006 and 2007, she was Acting Secretary to Parliament Committees for the Kiribati

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

. In 2007, she was again a consultant, but for the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

in their first national report on the

Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenniu ...

. She then worked first as a researcher, and then team leader for the Gender-Based Violence and Child Abuse Study at the Ministry of Internal and Social Affairs, and between 2010 and 2011 she was also Vice President for the Interim Kiribati Women in Politics Association. She stood independently in the 2011 Kiribati parliamentary election, becoming one of four female

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

elected. Afterwards, she said that she was still considering which of the political parties to join, with her primary focus being on helping the women of her local constituency finding new markets in which to sell their handicrafts. She is one of three MPs for South Tarawa, alongside

Teburoro Tito Teburoro Tito (''modern'' spelling Tiito, pronounced Seetoh) (born 25 August 1953) is an I-Kiribati politician who served as the President and foreign minister of Kiribati from 1 October 1994 to 28 March 2003. He was elected for the first time in ...

and Mareko Tofinga. When

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Anote Tong Anote Tong (; born 11 June 1952 in Tabuaeran, Line Islands) is an I-Kiribati politician for the Pillars of Truth party and environmental activist with half Chinese heritage, who served as President of Kiribati, from 2003 to 2016. He won the elect ...

named his new cabinet on January 19, 2012, Tekanene was named as Minister of Education. She was one of six new appointees to the cabinet. One of her objectives in the role was to improve the

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

available in schools. She was replaced in the cabinet by

Alexander Teabo Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

on March 15, 2016. This was the first cabinet of new President

Taneti Mamau Taneti Maamau (modern spelling: Taaneti Mwamwau, born 16 September 1960) is an I-Kiribati politician who has served as the 5th President of Kiribati since 11 March 2016. Political career A member of Tobwaan Kiribati Party, he began his career ...

of the

Tobwaan Kiribati Party The Tobwaan Kiribati Party ( en, Embracing Kiribati Party; TKP) is a political party in Kiribati. History The party was established in January 2016 as a merger of the Maurin Kiribati Party and the United Coalition Party. The two parties had won ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tekanene, Maere Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Pillars of Truth politicians Government ministers of Kiribati Women government ministers of Kiribati Members of the House of Assembly (Kiribati) 21st-century I-Kiribati women politicians 21st-century I-Kiribati politicians