Rikihana Etana

Te Ao Hou, March 1969, Page 2

Rikihana Etana The death occurred at his home at Te Kao on 27 December, 1968, of Rikihana Etana in his 72nd year. Educated at the Te Kao Native School and then at St Stephen's School (which at the time was at Parnell, Auckland), Etana returned to his home at an early age and enlisted for overseas service during the first world war. He was only 17 years old when he left for overseas. Following World War 2, he returned home and took a keen interest in the tribal history of his people. Still a comparatively young man, he was appointed Secretary and scribe of the Aupouri-Rarara-Ngapuhi Genealogical Committee — a committee formed to investigate and record the genealogies of these tribes and their connection with other ancestral ‘canoes’. In the 1920s, the Maori Land Development Scheme was launched in the far north with Judge F. O. V. Acheson, President of the Taitokerau Maori Land Board, taking a leading part in supporting the Aupouri's claims for land development. Rikihana Etana was one of many who strongly supported this move. By the time the elders of the tribe had died, Etana was the only member of the tribe who was fluent in tribal genealogies, which were a great advantage to the tribe in making claims for various land blocks as well as assuring visiting tribes of their lineage connection with the Aupouri. Rikihana Etana took an active interest in all affairs relating to his people, being the first Secretary of the Aupouri Trust Board, a position which he held throughout the Board's life until a few months prior to his death, a Secretary of the various Land Incorporations, Chairman of the local Maori Committee and School Committee and a spokesman for the tribe at various gatherings and functions. His funeral, one of the largest ever assembled at Te Kao, was attended by the Judge of the Maori Land Court, Mr Nicholson, the District Officer of the Department of Maori Affairs, and representatives of the various organisations and tribes with which he was associated throughout the years. He is survived by his widow, Ani, and a family of nine children. Ka ngaro koe te pononga a te Aupouri. Takoto mai i te Toko-o-te-Arawa me te iwi, me te whanau. Hoki a wairua atu ki to whanau e takoto mai ra i te pae o Tu. ‘He tao huata e taea te karo, he tao na aitua, e kore.’ E moe e Riki — nau i takahi te pae o te riri, takahia atu te ara o te tini o te mano. E moe i roto i te Ariki.