Susan Wallace has become the first wāhine Māori Anglican bishop of Te Waipounamu, the third Pīhopa ki Te Hui Amorangi ki Te Waipounamu and the second wahine elected to the office of Pīhopa.
By Pokere Paewai of RNZ
She is also the first to wear a moko kauae.
Wallace (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Wai) succeeds her father, the late Right Reverend Richard Wallace, who died suddenly in 2024. She was ordained and installed as Bishop on Saturday at the Christchurch Transitional Cathedral.
Bishop Susan Wallace said she never thought she would be following closely in his footsteps.
"I thought he would be around a bit longer, that he would get to retire - but that wasn't to be. God was ready to call him home.
"I don't take lightly what it means to step into that legacy, or the responsibility I carry to our people, our whenua, and to speak into injustices happening here at home and around the world."
Bishop Wallace becomes just the second wahine Māori elected to the office of Pīhopa. Te Pīhopa o Te Upoko o te Ika, Waitohiariki Quayle, ordained in 2019, was the first.
She will join Bishop Waitohiariki, Bishop Anne van Gend of Dunedin, and Assistant Bishop of Wellington Anashuya Fletcher in the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Archbishop Justin Duckworth told RNZ that Wallace was an outstanding individual following in the footsteps of many who have gone before her.
"She follows in the footsteps of her father, but she also follows in the footsteps of the second bishop of Aotearoa, who she is connected to in whakapapa, which is Wiremu Panapa."
Duckworth said it was his great privilege to serve as bishop with her late father Bishop Richard Wallace and that she had many of his same qualities.
"When we use that term, following in his footsteps, one of the things that those who knew Richard well, one of the most outstanding and slightly memorable features about Richard is he had the most amazing footwear... he just had style, so when we say she's following in his footsteps it just makes me chuckle."
While Duckworth wasn't sure whether she would adopt the same style, he said Wallace had the same integrity, the same commitment to her faith, her church and her people that her father displayed.
"On one level it's a unique... to see it pass from father to daughter, but on another level, it just feels so right to us all."
Te Hui Amorangi ki Te Waipounamu is the episcopal unit within Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa (The Māori bishopric of Aotearoa) that covers Te Waipounamu (the South Island), Wharekauri/Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) and Rakiura (Stewart Island).
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