Bessie te Wenerau Grace

Bessie Te Wenerau Grace (28 October 1889 – 20 June 1944), also known as Wene and Sister Eudora, was a New Zealand teacher and education leader. In 1926, while living in Kilburn, London, she completed a bachelor of arts from the University of Canterbury by distance, making her the first Māori woman to graduate from university.

Early life and education Grace was born on 28 October 1889 at Pukawa, on the shores of Lake Taupō. Her mother, Te Kahui Te Heuheu (1860–1929), was the eldest daughter of Horonuku Te Heuheu, a Ngāti Tūwharetoa paramount chief. Her father was Lawrence Grace, a missionary's son, who was a member of parliament for Tauranga. Grace was the eldest of twelve children.

In November 1943, Grace returned to New Zealand to visit family, and arranged for them to purchase a house in Devonport for her retirement. However shortly after her return to Melbourne, she was diagnosed with cancer. She died on 20 June 1944 and was interred at Box Hill Cemetery in Melbourne.

Legacy Cora Wilding commissioned a carved wooden cup to be made by a Māori carver at the Dominion Museum. The Wene Grace Cup is awarded annually after the inter-Anglican girls' school speech competition. Wilding remembered her friend as "immensely popular, a splendid hockey captain, tennis champion, above all set an example of absolute integrity and a keen sense of honour – her word once given was never broken".

In 2017, Grace was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's 150 women in 150 words, celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.