Ranginui Walker and Deidre Dodson met at Auckland Teachers' College, where they were both students. This photo shows Ranginui and Deidre with their parents on their wedding day, August 1953.
Ranginui's parents were concerned about their relationship because Deidre was Pākehā and Anglican. Deidre's father initially opposed their marriage because Ranginui was Māori and Catholic. Like many of their generation, Ranginui and Deidre asserted their right to make decisions about whom to marry on the basis of their feelings, rather than their ethnicity or religious background. Their children and grandchildren acknowledge their multiple ethnicities.
Courtesy of Ranginui and Deidre Walker.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Private collection, Walker family
Tāpiritia te tākupu hou