Ae Marika!
A column published in the Northland Age
By Hone Harawira
MP for Tai Tokerau
28 September 2010
To comment on this column please go to my website www.hone.co.nz
Mate atu he tëtëkura …
Last week, Maoridom lost a couple of it’s real leaders, Jim Ponui Nicholls and (Sir) Archie Taiaroa.
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Jim was of Ngati Maru, Ngati Whanaunga and Ngati Hako; he served as Chair of the Kaunihera Kaumatua for Hauraki iwi, and as Kaumatua representative on the Hauraki Maori Trust Board; and was well regarded by his people throughout Hauraki.

Jim was also deputy chair of the New Zealand Maori Council, and with Sir Graham Latimer no longer as active as he used to be, Jim had taken on the role of spokesperson on key issues such as water, foreshore and seabed, and treaty settlements.

In fact, it seems like just a few weeks ago that I last saw Jim down in Wellington where he was attending the Maori Affairs Select Committee review of the Maori Community Development Act, a pivotal piece of legislation that has guided both the Council and the NZ Maori Wardens over the past 45 years.

Jim was a positive and active leader who often I saw prowling the corridors of power, stitching up a deal here, and an arrangement there, always with a smile and a healthy dose of gentle persuasion.

Toby Curtis delivered the eulogy to a packed house at St George's Anglican Church in Thames on Thursday, and reminded us of many of Jim’s activities, including his pivotal role in the small group of people who had been instrumental in the talks that led to the birth of the Maori Party.

Jim was an old boy of St Stephens School, and I was proud to take my place alongside Te Ururoa and other old boys as pall bearers for him.

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Sir Archie John Te Atawhai Taiaroa was a different kind of leader, but a hugely influential one nonetheless.

At a local level, Archie was chair of the Whanganui River Maori Trust Board, and played a key role in the one of the nation’s longest running court cases - the Whanganui River claim. Chris Finlayson, Minister of Treaty Negotiations told me not long after we got news in the house of Archie’s passing, how desperately sorry he was that he had not been able to settle the Whanganui River claim while Archie had been alive – such was Archie’s influence.

Archie was also a major player at a national level, playing key roles in the long-running Maori fisheries struggle, and the Maori broadcasting case which gave birth to Maori radio and Maori television. On both issues Archie worked alongside Jim Nicholls as the New Zealand Maori Council laid down markers for the settlement of national claims that in turn enabled iwi to create an economic base from which many other activities have flourished.

Archie was also one of the key figures in the emergence of the iwi leaders group whose role has become hugely influential over the past few years.

But for all that, Archie was also a real nice guy, and I always found it difficult treating him as a Knight of the Realm, because I thought of him like an uncle rather than the imposing and powerful political influence that he was.

He never tried to lay the heavy political line on me, he never even told me off that I can recall - a look, a smile, a few quiet words, a pat on the back, a shake of the head - that’s all he needed to let me know what he thought of what I was doing.

Sir Archie was an old boy of Hato Paora, where in front of a crowd of more than a 1000 people, he was invested as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in October 2009.

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