Two faces of Harry Dansey

Kaea, Issue 2, 1 March 1980, Page 3

Two faces of Harry Dansey

Opposite A shot taken on his appointment as Human Rights Commissioner.

Left In a Maori setting. Harry speaks on the marae at Orakei in 1973.

The last year has seen urban Maori society robbed of three great leaders. First Matiu Te Hau, then “Brownie” Puriri and now Harry Dansey.

In each one of them in different ways were embodied special gifts. Wit abounded with all three; eloquence was their constant hand maiden. Each had been an explorer in a society where there is not so much a hostile environment but rather paths largely untrodden.

For all loved persons, as undoubtedly was the case of these three, all deaths are untimely. But in the case of Harry Dansey in 1979, when the strands of our multi-cultural society are under extreme pressure, his death is truly as inopportune as it was tragic. He was in the very best sense the multi-cultural New Zealander.

He was a highly professional journalist admired in a craft which almost by definition reveres scepticism, a poet, author and playwright. He possessed the magical gift of painting word pictures rich in all the literary devices and ennobled by compassion and humanity.

His unfailing courtesy, restraint and high intelligence were obvious qualities which commended him to the race relations career, but they also distinguished him in an age when gentility in its finest sense does not abound.

He occupied civic office with dignity. When he spoke, it was to convey a measured thought and sagacity. By respecting his two cultures and achieving, not without considerable and persistent effort, a fluency and familiarity in both he gave us a glimpse of what is possible. He showed us how this nation could draw on truly national and sadly neglected resources.

Winston Churchill in a eulogy to Lord Birkenhead expressed sentiments which seem just as fitting to Harry: “.. .[he] banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends and they will cherish his memory till their time is come”.

Michael Brown