500 at funeral of Lady Tirikatene

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 3

500 at funeral of Lady Tirikatene

The funeral of Lady Tiri-i katene, widow of the late Sir | Eruera Tirikatene, and mother of the member of Parliament for Southern Maori, Mre Whetu Tirikatene; Sullivan, was held at Tuahiwi marae yesterday. About 500 people, mostly Maori, and including the seven living children, the grandchildren, and great-

i grandchildren of Lady Tirikatene, some still babies in arms, attended the funeral service, held on the front steps of the marae. As the coffin, draped in a kiwi-feather cloak, stood open in the doorway of the marae, the only sounds, apart from the speeches, prayers, and i hymns, came from the

crickets and children playing in the background. Maori visitors from tribes from Northland to Bluff, and including some' from the Chatham Islands, were welcomed on to the marae by an elder, Mr Pani Manawatu. They included the national secretary of the Ratana Church (the Rev. Rapine Aperahane) and the Minister of Maori Affaire (Mr Couch). Prominent pakeha visitors included the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) and the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr Hamish Hay). Mr Rowling described Lady Tirikatene as a “great and gracious lady” and a person of “infinite wisdom and infinite grace as all of us who knew her were aware, and a person of infinite love, as her children and grandchildren bear witness.”

Lady Tirikatene was also a person with "infinite dedication” to the Maori people, “to what she saw, along with her late husband, Sir Eruera, as a political mission.” This commitment had meant a great deal of privation for both of them in the early years of their marriage, and for their! children, but their faith had carried them through, Mr Rowling said. For 48 years, Lady Tirikatene had etood beside her husband and then 'her daughter as members of Parliament. She had been called at one time, and quite aptly, the “mother of the Maori policy committee” and her life had been an example to everyone, he said. The service was conducted by Lady Tirikatene’s son, the Rev. Rino Tirikatene, a minister of the Ratana Church, at whose Wellington home Lady Tirikatene spent her last years. An Anglican minister, the Rev. Mauri Mareden, of ' North Auckland, preached I the sermon, during which he referred to 12 trees that the 1 Jewish community in Wellington had planted on Mount Sinai in honour of Lady Tirikatene.

The 12 trees represented the 12 Tirikatene children and the 12 tribes of Israel. Mr Marsden said that the tree was associated with life in both the Jewish and Maori cultures. He eaid the Ratana movement had been founded on the Word of God and that Sir Eruera and Lady Tirikatene had brought up their family is almost “abject poverty” because they had a vision to fulfil. Their commitment was not a political one but a religious one—the redemption of the Maori people, he said. After the service, the funeral entourage moved to the Te Kai O Te Atua cemetery, Kaiapoi, which is preEuropean in origin, for the burial, later returning to the marae for a hakari (feast).