NAME:
Luamanuvao Winifred (Winnie) Laban QSO
BIRTHPLACE:
Wellington, New Zealand
KNOWN FOR:
Assistant Vice Chancellor (Pasifika) at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Laban has previously served as a Member of Parliament for Mana Electorate representing the Labour Party, Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, and Associate Minister of Social Development, Economic Development, and Trade. In 1992 she was bestowed the Samoan chiefly title of Luamanuvao.
SHORT BIO / CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
Luamanuvao Winnie Laban is a Social Work graduate from Victoria University and completed a post-graduate Diploma in Development Studies from Massey University.
Laban has worked as a Community Worker, Probation Officer, School Counsellor, and Public Service Manager. During the 1990s she coordinated the South Pacific Consumer Protection Programme working in 15 Pacific Island nations.
In 1999, Laban was elected as the first Pacific Island woman in the New Zealand Parliament, and she resigned from Parliament in October 2010 to take up the new position of Assistant Vice Chancellor (Pasifika – Victoria University, Wellington, NZ).
- In 2011 Luamanuvao Winnie Laban was honored as a Companion of the Queens Service Order (QSO).
- First Samoan and Pacific Island woman elected to New Zealand Parliament
- Becoming Minister of Pacific Island Affairs