Lesley Parr

Tu Tangata, Issue 26, 1 October 1985, Page 40

Lesley Parr

Kupu whakamihi

Seven years as minutes secretary to the New Zealand Maori Council, nine years as secretary of the Wellington District Maori Council, six years as secretary of the Petone Maori Committee and a year as national secretary of the New Zealand Maori Wardens’ Association is an indication of the zeal of Leslie Parr.

A self confessed late-starter as a ‘born again Maori’, Leslie only came to grips with her maoriness late in life after three marriages.

Her upbringing was pakeha despite her fathers Irish/Scottish/Maori background and her mothers Ngati Raukawa and Rangitane bloodlines.

Her father, David Walter Barclay was Ngai Te Rangi and Te Arawa through his mother, Ngaone Aongahoro of Tauranga. The Scottish/Irish side was through his father who came to New Zealand and worked as an interpreter in Parliament.

It was because of this Northern Ireland ancestry that Leslie was born in the family home of Ballward Lodge. Her father had inherited the lodge and so the young family spent four years looking after the ancestral home.

However it had to be sold and the family returned to New Zealand. Soon after, Leslie’s parents split up and her father remarried. Through this union Leslie has a brother, Barney and a sister, Pat.

Wellington was where Leslie grew up, as she puts it, “as a little pakeha”.

She worked as a legal typist and ran her own secretarial bureau called Amron.

She had a son Timothy, who was killed in an accident in 1977.

It was around this time that Leslie was finding her niche as a Maori. She says she had had a visit from a Maori Affairs community officer, Iri Tawhiwhirangi who suggested her secretarial talents could be useful to Maori committees in Wellington.

Soon after this Leslie became the secretary for the Wainuiomata Maori Committee and delegate to the Wellington District Maori Council.

The chairman of this council was a man called Apa Watene, a man Leslie says she was privileged to work with and know.

“Apa had a charisma, a spirituality that people always responded to. At that time in 1977 he was the welfare officer for the Gear Meat Company, a real caring person who people respected.”

“Apa encouraged me to recognise myself, he was that sort of person. It was a relief that at last I was somewhere where I could be a Maori.”

This being a Maori meant taking the minutes of the New Zealand Maori Council meetings, as well as the various Maori committees she was on.

Not speaking the language did cause a few problems for Leslie, but a friendly explanation from Apa usually made sure the minutes were a true record of the meetings.

In the late 1970’s Maori committee work was much the same as it is now says Leslie.

People having problems with housing, employment or benefits and other such matters would appeal to the local Maori committee for help. They in turn would approach the agency or government department involved.

One particular problem at that time was the need for early release of bodies to the family of the deceased.

It was brought home for Leslie when her boy was killed in an accident in Matamata. It was only through the intervention of prominent Maori people that her son’s body was brought home with little delay for the tangi.

She says it was through a hui at Mangunu Marae, Naenae that Maori people, medical people and police got

together to streamline procedures so that bodies could be released earlier to relatives.

Leslie also got involved in court work helping pakeha and Maori kids, a social work reputation that continues today. It’s meant standing surety for offenders and occasionally paying fines, though she is at pains to point out that the money was paid back at the first pay.

At present she’s helping individual offenders with long-term day-by-day help.

She admits that the neighbours at her Naenae council flat are sometimes scandalised by the Black Power visitors she has.

She’s really proud of the impact Maatua Whangai has had in the Lower Hutt and the real help and commitment there is at court and afterwards in backup care.

She mentions some of the people she's been glad to work with. Sgt Laurie Gabites, community relations coordinator and youth aid officer for Lower Hutt police, Mr Ron Murray the Lower Hutt Housing Corporation manager and John Fitzpatrick the director of Social Welfare, Lower Hutt. And she adds, the Lower Hutt legal fraternity and court staff.

And has the association Leslie Parr has had with Maori politics through the New Zealand Maori Council and Maori committees had its effect on her?

Leslie smiles and says the best advice she got first from Apa and then from Sir Graham Lattimer was that she should listen, take it all in and button her lip.

She maintains that’s just what she did all those years.

She’s now pulled out of Wellington district Maori council work, saying after Apa died the character of the kaupapa changed with different people and different methods.

"I guess after Apa, it's impossible for others to fill his shoes, I owe a lot to him as do a lot of others."

But has this relinquishing of one type of work meant an end to Leslie Parr's manaakitanga for her people?

Well, no. She’s just settling into a position as the first Maori and the first woman to sit on the management committee of the NZ Prisoners' Aid and Rehabilitation Society (Inc).

Leslie considers it to be a minor coup, considering the Society was formed before the turn of the century and that up till now it’s been all white male preserve.

The Society helps not just prisoners

but also offenders appearing in court with montary aid and material aid to families and individuals.

Leslie says the whole area of tapping into the Maori committees and other grassroots organisations for prisoner and family support is now wide open.

And you get the feeling from talking with Leslie Parr that a whole new way of helping her people is now also opening up in her life.