PEOPLE AND PLACES

Te Ao Hou, June 1965, Page 28

Dr Hugh Kawharu, of Orakei, Auckland (see photo, left) a member of Ngati Whatua, has been appointed to the staff of Auckland University as a lecturer in social anthropology. He has studied at both Oxford and Cambridge, and his qualifications include B.Sc. (N.Z.), M.A. (Cantab.), B. Litt. (Oxon.) and D.Phil. (Oxon.). His B. Litt. and D.Phil. theses were on Maori land tenure Hugh Kawharu has spent five years with the Department of Maori Affairs, and has done work for the United Nations in connection with technical assistance to underdeveloped countries. He has also spent some time with the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Aged 37, he is married with three children. Mr P. W. Hohepa (see photo below, left) has also taken up an appointment at Auckland University, as a lecturer in Maori studies. Previously a junior lecturer at Auckland, he has been studying at the University of Indiana in the United States, where he recently submitted a Ph.D. thesis on ‘A profile-generative PEOPLE AND PLACES

grammar of Maori'. His M.A. thesis, which has been recently published, was on his home district in Northland. Mr Hohepa has also done research on the use of English among American Indian children and the structure of the Tongan language. Pat Hohepa is the son of Mr Tom Hohepa and the late Mrs Paerau Hohepa (nee Wilcox), of Waima, both members of the Mahurehure sub-tribe of Ngapuhi. Aged 28, he is married with three children. Mr Raymond (Remana) Henwood, M.Sc. (see photo below right, previous page) who is also from Northland, recently went to the Gordon Institute of Technology, Geelong, Australia, to take a post-graduate fellowship diploma in textiles. Mr Henwood is a son of Mr and Mrs C. V. Henwood of Tautoro, six miles from Kaikohe. His father is Pakeha; his mother, a member of Ngati Moerewa subtribe of Ngapuhi, was before her marriage Miss Te Paea Te Whata. Like Pat Hohepa, Ray attended Northland College in Kaikohe. At Victoria University he gained in M.Sc. with honours in biochemistry. For 18 months he taught science at Wellington College. Aged 24, he is married with one son. Ranginui, the new war-memorial meeting-house at Hairini, Tauranga (see photo below) was opened on 6 March by the Governor-General, Sir Bernard Fergusson, in the presence of 3,000 visitors. In his speech Sir Bernard said that just as the name Tauranga meant an anchorage or haven, so the meeting-house and marae would shelter the traditional arts and knowledge. It would also be a place from which young people would go out to seek new adventures and to become leaders, not only of the Maori or of the European, but of New Zealanders as a whole. The meeting-house was dedicated by the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Rt. Rev. W. N. Panapa.

It has taken 18 years to complete the building. The carvings alone are valued at £9,000. Miss Reomoana Walker (see photo above), the registrar at the Magistrates Court in Masterton, is one of the few women to hold such a position, and possibly the only Maori woman to do so. Miss Walker's home district is Gladstone, near Masterton, where her parents, Mr and Mrs John Walker (Waaka) are farming. Educated at Hukarere Maori Girls' College, she was head prefect in her final year, and has been with the Justice Department in Masterton for about a year. Apart from acting as registrar at regular sittings of the Masterton court, she is the criminal clerk in the public office, being responsible for the collection of fines, the preparation of the court list of sittings, and other related duties. Praised by colleagues for her efficiency, she very much enjoys her work. Mr W. Herewini, Controller of Maori Welfare, Maori Affairs Department, was one of the members of a recent very successful tourist mission to Australia (in the photo above, taken

at the airport, Mr Herewini, left, discusses itinerary details with another member of the group). The tourist mission discovered that because of the misleading image of the Maori people contained in New Zealand publicity material, ‘many Australians think that Maoris run around in grass skirts’. They have recommended a more balanced portrayal of Maoris in our tourist literature. Among the Anzac veterans who recently returned to Gallipoli for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the original landing were Captain Pirimi Tahiwi and Mrs Tahiwi (see photos below, far left and centre), Mr Jack Hiroti (see photo below, right) and Mr Wati Barclay. Capt. Tahiwi, an elder of Ngati Raukawa of Otaki, is possibly the only surviving officer of the N.Z. Maori Pioneer Battalion that fought at Gallipoli. Severely wounded at Gallipoli, he also served in France and Belgium. After the war he led the New Zealand troops in their march through London to a service at Westminster Abbey. A school-teacher by profession, Capt. Tahiwi for some years taught Maori language and culture at Victoria University. During World War II he served on the army instructional staff. Always keenly interested in Maori welfare, he has been closely associated with many organisations, and for 15 years was president of the Poneke Maori Tribal Committee. Mrs Mairatea Tahiwi, who accompanied her husband on the pilgrimage to Gallipoli, is also well known for her work for Maori welfare. A descendant of Rira Porutu, chief of Pipitea Pa in Wellington in the 1840s, she is a member of Ngati Awa. During World War II she served the Maori war effort in Wellington in a voluntary capacity, dealing with welfare problems resulting from the large numbers of Maori women coming to live in the city at this time. In 1954 Mrs Tahiwi received the M.B.E. in recognition of her services during these years. The first Dominion vice-president of the Maori Women's Welfare League, she has also been associated with many other welfare organisations. Mr Jack Hiroti, of Lower Hutt, the second Maori Anzac veteran in the Gallipoli pilgrimage, belongs to a prominent family of Te Wai-nui-a-rua. He served for four and a half years in World War I; though he suffered only minor injuries, one of his brothers was killed in France. In World War II Mr Hiroti served with the Maori Battalion. He is now a civilian, worker at Trentham Military Camp. The third Maori soldier, Mr Wati Barclay, was wounded at Gallipoli and later served three years in France, gaining a commission. Mr Barclay, who comes originally from Kawhia and is now farming at Kaikohe, was in his time an outstanding and exceptionally versatile rugby player, and was captain of the 1926 Maori All Black team which toured France, England and Canada. He has taken a leading part in rugby administration, especially in the Waikato and in more recent years in North Auckland. He also takes an active interest in many other local organisations. Mr Kuru Waaka, of Rotorua (see photo below) was recently appointed secretary of the Rotorua Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. Mr Waaka, a member of the Tuhourangi tribe, enlisted in the Maori Battalion in 1939 and rose to the rank of captain before being invalided home in 1943. He joined the Rehabilitation Department two years later, and since that time has taken a prominent part in organisations concerned with Maori welfare, especially that of former servicemen. Mr Waaka is married, with nine children.