Linda Te Puni

Te Puni is a descendant of the Te Ati Awa chief Honiana Te Puni.^[1]

Te Puni worked at several jobs before becoming a diplomat, including cutting fish in Iceland, as a farmworker in Israel and working in London pubs.^[2] Te Puni joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987.^[3] She has served in Honiara, Samoa, Ottawa, Mexico, Paris, Suva and Wellington.^[2]

In 2010, Te Puni moved to Rarotonga as the first woman New Zealand high commissioner to the Cook Islands.^[2] Between 2015 and 2016, she was Administrator of Tokelau, the first woman to hold that role.^[4] In 2016, she was appointed as high commissioner to Tuvalu.^[5] In December 2018 she became ambassador to Chile.^[6]