TWO RETIREMENTS

Kaea, Issue 2, 1 March 1980, Page 6

TWO RETIREMENTS

Two well-known Wiremus, Messrs Herewini and Parker, retired at the end of last year after outstanding careers in the service of our people. We wish them well in their retirement, b it both are tireless and selfless workers, and we know we haven’t seen or heard the last of them yet!

Wiremu Parker

Wiremu Parker has retired from his post as senior lecturer in Maori Studies at Victoria University after twenty-nine years of service. When he left Te Aute College in 1935 he enrolled at Victoria “with no great motivation to get a degree, but to sample Pakeha life before returning to the farm”. He was born on a sheep station on the East Coast, and it was everybody’s intention that he continue the family tradition. But the farm was going to have to wait.

Bill’s achievements have been impressive indeed: in 1942 he became the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation’s first producer and reader of the news in Maori; 1950 saw his appointment as senior tutor in Maori Adult Education at Victoria; and he became a member of the Maori Purposes Fund Board in 1964.

From 1969 to 1970 he was a member of the committee revising the Williams Maori dictionary. Then in 1972 he received a fellowship from the Asian South Pacific Association of Cultural Affairs, which involved visits to Australia, Japan and Korea. Five years later he was invited to be Patron of the Society of Maori Artists and Writers.

Throughout these years Mr Parker was still at Victoria, involved with organisations and sitting on committees of a Maori or national nature. He has frequently been called upon to judge Maori cultural competitions, has served on the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, has been a Maori adviser to the Education Department, and has been a member of the UNESCO sub-committee on education.

In 1976 he was awarded the M.B.E. for his services to the community.

In short, he has done a great deal more than “sample” Pakeha life, and he has promoted Maori life too to both Maori and Pakeha. He recalls that at Victoria in the 19305, “there was a small group of gifted Maori students. Most of them had strong Pakeha conditioning from birth. Indeed, only two of them could speak Maori. No special acknowledgement was made to the bicultural nature in our society.” He is gratified to note the widening of interest in the Maori, Polynesia and the Pacific, and quotes the proverb: “He kokoru noa koe e ruku, ka horu te Moananui a Kiwa” (“Explore a mere bay and the Pacific Ocean beckons”).

Opposite top Bill Parker.

Opposite bottom Bill Herewini.