Tekarei Russell


Tekarei Russell is a Gilbertese former politician.
After been educated at the Elaine Bernacchi School, she became a secondary school teacher in 1959, in Bikenibeu, and was the first woman to be elected to the Legislative Council of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony, when she was elected MP for South Tarawa in 1971. Re-elected in 1975, she was appointed Minister for Health and Family Planning, serving from 1975 to 1977, whereupon she retired from politics and returned to teaching. She was subsequently awarded the Pride of Kiribati medal.