Māori Issues

We lost a number of well-known Māori leaders in the past year. Henare Rakiihia (Rik) Tau, a Ngāi Tahu leader, passed away at the end of June 2014. He filed the Ngāi Tahu claim against the Crown in 1986 and was the driving power behind the success ful hearings of the claims and their eventual settlement. Amster Reedy, a Ngāti Porou leader, passed away in September. He was an expert in ancient Māori rituals and was called on as the kaumātua (expert elder) and cultural advisor to New Zealand teams for four Olympic games. In October, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, of Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, and Ngāti Kurī descent, passed away. He was a professor of fine arts and one of New Zealand’s leading art historians. Rāhera Barrett-Douglas, Ngāti Maniapoto, also passed away in October. She led her iwi (nation) as the chair of the Ngāti Maniapoto Trust Board in the 1990s. In November, it was Eru Thompson, a Tainui leader. He was an acknowledged and respected historian and traditional expert whose knowledge and wisdom were sought after throughout Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). In February 2015, both Apirana Mahuika, Ngāti Porou, and Tama Huata, Ngāti Kahungunu, joined their ancestors. Apirana Mahuika led his iwi as chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou from its establishment in 1987 until his death. Tama Huata was an outstanding leader in Māori performing arts; he founded the Kahurangi Māori Dance Theatre and the Waiata Māori Music Awards. In May 2015, there was the sudden passing of Erima Henare, a Ngāti Hine leader. He was an acknowledged expert and authority on Māori language, history, traditions, genealogies, and laws, particularly in Te Tai Tokerau (the North); he was also the chair of the Māori Language Commission. Mauriora Kingi, Te Arawa, passed away suddenly a month later. He was a respected and influential advisor of local and central government on Māori law and culture and served as the Rotorua Lakes Council’s director on Māori matters. We bade each of them a peaceful journey as they traveled to rejoin their ancestors in far-off Hawaiki.

Leaders of the caliber of these people—who spend a great deal of their lives in the service of their whānau (extended family), hapū (grouping of whānau), and iwi (grouping of hapū, nation) as well as the wider community—are greatly sought after. Most often in the Māori world they are identified at a young age and trained by their elders to take over the mantle of leadership at an appropriate time. Whakapapa (genealogical) links are very important. The English words lead and leader are considered inadequate descriptors for the role and the people we refer to as our rangatira. This word provides some insight into the role: ranga is a shoal of fish that swims in unison; tira is a group of people. The derivation raranga is to weave. Rangatira are those who weave the people together so that they move in unison (Mutu 1992, 60). Their role has nothing to do with either the assertion of power by one (or some) over others or notions of hierarchy, superiority, and dominance (Mikaere 2010)—meanings that are inherent in the English word leader. Rangatira require attributes of integrity, generosity, and humility, the abilities to listen to and take the people with them, to keep their word, and to enhance the mana (power and authority derived from the gods) of the people (Diamond 2003). Māori societal values including mana, tapu (spiritual power or protective force), tikanga (correct way of doing things, law), whanaungatanga (kinship), and rangatiratanga (exercise of mana) determine how rangatira conduct themselves and carry out their roles.

True rangatira these days are the heads of their whānau and hapū. Sometimes iwi leaders are rangatira, but the imposition of Pākehā (European) legal structures on iwi bodies as part of the treaty claims settlement process makes it difficult for them to adhere to Māori values that define the role...