One of the country's most loved entertainers, Dame Jools Topp, has died at the age of 68.
She had breast cancer, a disease that she was first diagnosed with in 2006 before it returned in 2021. She died at the weekend.
As one half of the Topp Twins with sister Lynda, she brought joy to generations of Kiwis - and fought for change while she was at it.
The Topp Twins knew how to hold an audience in the palm of their hands - and they made countless live appearances from country halls to the stages of London and New York.
They created several television series, an award-winning documentary about their lives and a bestselling book, Untouchable Girls.
Raised as a 'wild child' by loving parents on a Waikato farm, Jools's deep love for New Zealanders was clear in her many beloved and hard-case characters.
A favourite was the goofy and excitable Camp Leader - played in a huge woolly cardie and horn-rimmed glasses.
She was under the thumb of Lynda's bossy Camp Mother- but often rebelled, always without a script.
"My character, camp leader, she's sort of inside herself but she's so hard to control. I never know where she's going to go," Jools said in the Twins' 2009 documentary film.
She also played one of the two Kens - classic Kiwi blokes, with sideburns and 70s suits.
None of their characters were scripted - something Jools acknowledged other performers might find that frightening.
"But if you gave us a script we'd be terrified because that wouldn't give us the freedom to react with our audience and play with our audience and go places and do things."
Country music was where it began for Jools and Lynda - and their trademark harmonies often went hand in hand with protest.
In the turbulent 70s and 80s they would busk in downtown Auckland, or attend demonstrations, performing their protest songs.
They protested against the 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour, for a nuclear free Pacific and in support of the Homosexual Law Reform bill.
"It brought people together, it made them feel like they were part of a cause."
Jools has said many of their values came from their parents.
They had a idyllic, "wild" country childhood on a farm in Waikato, raised with their brother Peter by very loving parents who let them be themselves.
As the sisters told RNZ's Music 101 programme in 2024, they were out lesbians when they became famous - a time when others in the limelight often felt they could not be.
"It was pure honesty about who we were. And if you didn't like it you didn't have to come and see the show," Jools said.
"But New Zealand came with us."
Twin Dames
They were made Dames Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018, saying at the time that meant Camp Mother, Camp Leader, the Kens and all their characters were knighted now too.
Jools said the honour, once reserved for people of a certain class, was an acknowledgement of all they had fought for.
"The Queen must have said 'yes.' She had to tick the box. She must have said "oh yeah ...give those lesbian twins a bloody medal," she said.
The sisters had lived in different parts of the country at times but Lynda told RNZ presenter Kim Hill in 2023 they were always connected.
"It's like a golden thread we call it. It's just there, you're always connected to your twin. We usually speak to each other every day but sometimes if you don't then all of a sudden the little thread will get a tug."
Jools was was first diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years ago, undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments that took a toll on her body.
When it returned, she underwent some treatment but said she wanted to focus of living well.
She had been taking great joy from life, particularly from riding her horse, she told Hill, saying then she was not afraid of dying.
"We've had a charmed and beautiful life - and hopefully we've changed people's lives along the way. And it's important to us. It's what Mum taught us, it's what Mum instilled into us."
