LLL of New Zealand was founded in 1964.

Rosemary Gordon ~ La Leche League first came to New Zealand as the result of an article in Reader’s Digest. An Auckland mother, Kathleen Peace, became enthusiastic after reading it, corresponded with Marian Tompson, and on April 25th, 1964, held the first meeting in New Zealand in the name of La Leche League. Kathleen never became accredited as an official Leader, and thus LLLNZ has two ‘founding’ dates and two founders – in that our first accredited Leader was Yvonne Procuta (now Foreman), who became a Leader while living in Madison, Wisconsin, and on returning to New Zealand, began the first official LLL Group in Cambridge in 1967. More Groups quickly followed and by 1973, the 100th Leader had been accredited.

In 1975, Yvonne was appointed the first National Coordinator of LLLNZ – she had to negotiate with LLLI over this as there were only Area Coordinators up to this time and not National ones. By 1979 there were 128 Groups and 350 Leaders, by which time LLLNZ was training its own Leaders, holding national conferences, and had set up its own Board of Consultants (the local equivalent of LLLI’s Professional Advisory Board). Much of this was due to the enthusiasm, hard work and skills of Yvonne and other Leaders who had great ability and energy, and the best kind of pioneering spirit. LLLNZ had its own publication for Leaders, initially called Leaderette, and then from 1989, Mosaic.

In mid-1988, LLLNZ became an Affiliate of LLLI, and although Leader numbers have declined since our heyday of 359 in 1991, we still have the honour of having the highest number of Leaders and Groups per capita in the LLLI world – a record we are likely to hold on to for a long time, when you consider that New Zealand’s population is only just over 4 million!

We would like to acknowledge and honour Yvonne for her vision, organisational skills, enthusiasm and plain hard work during the early years of LLLNZ, which set us in good stead for our continued success as an organisation.