Naida Glavish Naida Glavish Dame Rangimarie Naida Glavish is a New Zealand politician and Māori community leader from the Ngāti Whātua iwi. From 2013 to 2016, she was President of the Māori Party. Glavish first came to national attention in 1984, when she was a telephone operator for the New Zealand Post Office, and used the Māori language greeting "kia ora" when dealing with callers. She was threatened with dismissal by her supervisor, but the prime minister of the day, Robert Muldoon, supported Glavish's use of the phrase. A member of Mana Motuhake, Glavish stood for the Alliance in the Te Tai
Kia kaha Primary School (Kia Kaha). Queen Alexandra's Mounted Rifles (QAMR) an armored regiment based at Waiouru uses Ake Ake Kia Kaha as their motto. Kia kaha is also used in the film "Forever Strong", and is the motto of the Highland High School rugby team which features in the film. The trainers of Beachbody's Les Mills Pump home workout program also use this phrase regularly throughout the program. When the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch on 22 February 2011, following the 4 September 2010 earthquake, "Kia Kaha" became the iconic phrase used by family and friends