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Mojo Celeste Mathers (née Minrod, born 23 November 1966) is a New Zealand politician and a former
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 o ...
(MP) for the
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
. She became known through her involvement with the Malvern Hills Protection Society and helped prevent the Central Plains Water Trust's proposal to build a large irrigation dam in Coalgate. She was a senior policy advisor to the Green Party between 2006 and 2011. Mathers was elected to the 50th term of Parliament in 2011, becoming the country's first deaf Member of Parliament."First deaf MP to join Parliament"
''New Zealand Herald'', 10 December 2011


Early life and career

Mathers was born in London, UK in 1966. Her parents named her after the
Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago ...
' 1957 version of the song "
Got My Mojo Working "Got My Mojo Working" is a blues song written by Preston "Red" Foster and first recorded by R&B singer Ann Cole in 1956. Foster's lyrics describe several amulets or talismans, called ''mojo'', which are associated with hoodoo, an early African ...
". Mathers was born profoundly deaf "after oxygen was cut to her as newborn baby during a difficult birth". She is not, however, mute, and is a lipreader. She only began to make significant use of
Sign Language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
in the late 2000s (saying she had "found it very useful for some situations"), preferring to lipread and communicate orally before that. She has three children. In her personal life, she "strive to reduce erpersonal impact on the environment by being vegetarian, supporting GE free, non-toxic, organic, fair trade and local, ndusing public transport". Her grandfather was the legal philosopher
H. L. A. Hart Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart (18 July 190719 December 1992), known simply as H. L. A. Hart, was an English legal philosopher. He was Professor of Jurisprudence (University of Oxford), Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University an ...
. Mathers has an Honours degree in mathematics and a master's degree in Conservation Forestry. Between 2001 and 2006, she was the joint owner of a "small business offering forestry management services". She worked for the Green Party as a senior policy advisor between 2006 and 2011.


Political career

Her interest in political environmentalism began when she settled in Coalgate, a village in
Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
region in New Zealand. She was the spokeswoman for the local community's opposition to the building of a large dam, proposed by the Central Plains Water Trust as part of a broader project to "convert the local area into intensive dairy farming" from 2001 to 2004. She was a founding member of the Malvern Hills Protection Society which succeeded in halting the dam project. Mathers first stood for
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
in the 2005 election in the Rakaia electorate, when she was ranked 16th on the Green Party list, winning 1,631 votes. In
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
she was ranked 13th and contested
Christchurch East Christchurch East, originally called Christchurch City East, is a current New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It was first created for the and was abolished for two period, from 1875–1905 and again from 1946–1996. It was last created for ...
, winning 1,843 votes. On neither occasion was she elected. In 2009, Mathers wrote submissions opposing clauses of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill 2009 and arguing for the "setting of minimum environmental standards" across the country. She also wrote in opposition to the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill 2009, arguing it "would substantially weaken the existing emissions trading scheme, reducing incentives to reduce emissions while providing large ongoing subsidies to climate polluters at enormous cost to the taxpayer"."Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill: Submission by Mojo Mathers"
Parliament of New Zealand
In 2011, Mathers described her areas of policy interest as "rural issues, biodiversity, forestry and water, as well as animal welfare, disability and women's rights". At the 2011 general election, she was number 14 on the list, and stood again in Christchurch East. She finished third in her constituency, with 4.5% of the electorate vote, but was elected as a list MP. She suggested that "having sign language in Parliament" might help "enable the wider deaf community to access political debate".
New Zealand Sign Language New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL ( mi, te reo Turi) is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006 under the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. The purpose of the act was ...
is already an official language of New Zealand but, unlike
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
and
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
, it was not represented in Parliament. As an MP, Mathers was provided, after some delay, with an electronic note-keeping assistant. Speaker
Lockwood Smith Sir Alexander Lockwood Smith (born 13 November 1948) is a New Zealand politician and diplomat who was High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2017, and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013. S ...
also said he "planned to develop a captioning service to make proceedings of the House more accessible to the hearing impaired" among the general public. During her two terms in parliament she held various spokesperson roles including Animal Welfare, Civil Defence, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Disability Issues, Food and Natural Health. She served on the Commerce, Government Administration and Local Government and Environment
select committees Select or SELECT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Select'' (album), an album by Kim Wilde * ''Select'' (magazine), a British music magazine * ''MTV Select'', a television program * ''Select Live'', New Zealand's C4 music program ...
. In November 2015, a member's bill in Mathers’ name which would establish an adjudicator to resolve disputes between supermarkets and suppliers was drawn. The bill was defeated at its first reading with the Green Party, Labour Party, NZ First and the
Māori Party Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
voting in support and the National Party, Act and
United Future United Future New Zealand, usually known as United Future, was a centrist political party in New Zealand. The party was in government between 2005 and 2017, first alongside Labour (2005–2008) and then supporting National (2008–2017). U ...
opposed. Mathers lost her seat at the 2017 general election, despite no change in her list ranking, because the Green Party received a smaller share of the party vote.


Life after politics

In 2019 Mathers started working as a policy advisor for Disabled Person's Assembly of New Zealand (DPA). In the 2019 New Year Honours, Mathers was appointed a
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...
, for services to people with disabilities.


References


External links


Profile at Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand website

Profile at New Zealand Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathers, Mojo 1966 births Living people British emigrants to New Zealand Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand MPs New Zealand list MPs Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Deaf politicians People from London Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 21st-century New Zealand politicians 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Deaf people from New Zealand New Zealand politicians with disabilities Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit