Miriam Corban Retirement Village

Each Ryman village is named in honour of a Kiwi or Aussie trailblazer: Anthony Wilding, Lady Diana Isaac, Evelyn Page. They pushed further and set the bar high for others to aspire to. In creating communities that challenge the expectations of ageing, Ryman villages are also setting the bar high. They’re demonstrating that a retirement lifestyle brimming with new experiences, connections and fulfilment is something we should aspire to. Our Kiwi and Aussie namesakes represent the measure of inspiration, while Ryman villages represent the measure of retirement living.

Miriam Corban

Miriam Corban Retirement Village is named after a woman who is inextricably linked to Henderson and the west of Auckland through the winemaking legacy of her grandfather Assid Abraham Corban, a Lebanese immigrant who established Mount Lebanon Vineyards in Henderson in 1902.

Born on 20 July 1927 in Wellington, Miriam Khouri settled in Henderson in 1948 after she married Assid Khaleel Corban, also a descendant of the same winemaking pioneer.

Both Miriam and Assid were raised to value family and taking an active part in serving their community, and this they did with great energy.

Assid served as a West Auckland councillor for nearly 60 years, including as the first Mayor of Waitakere City and Mayor of Henderson Borough Council, and Miriam stood loyally by his side supporting him in all of his civic duties.

But Miriam was also a champion and supporter of a long list of community groups and causes in her own right, ranging from the Waitakere Red Cross to the Henderson Women’s Bowling Club to the New Zealand Orchid Society.

But it was her campaigning to help new mothers that was perhaps the most significant and meaningful to Miriam, a mother of four herself.

Prompted by her own traumatic experience, where she didn’t know whether she’d given birth to a son or daughter for three days due to the drugs she was prescribed during her baby’s birth, Miriam became an active campaigner for empowering women in childbirth and promoting maternity hospital rooming-in for new mothers and babies.

So passionate was she about the importance of giving women the opportunity for natural, drug-free childbirth and giving babies the best start in life, she held ante-natal classes in the lounge of her Henderson home and helped form the Natural Child Birth Association which later became known as Parents Centres.

Miriam earned several royal honours – she was awarded the Commemoration Medal in 1990, the NZ Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993 and the Queen’s Service Order for Community Service in 1999.