There was a long obituary of Radio New Zealand's Henare Te Ua in the Dominion Post yesterday.
Te Ua was a Maori broadcaster - or, more strictly speaking, a Maori who worked in broadcasting, specialising in Maori issues.
According to the DomPost obit, he "contributed to the understanding of Maori culture by a non-Maori audience in a broadcasting career spanning more than three decades".
Even during Te Ua's life there was a tendency to gild the lily. Here is how his publisher described Te Ua's book In The Air:
Henare te Ua is well known and loved by radio listeners throughout New Zealand. During his radio career, Henare te Ua has met many Maori and Pakeha people who helped to shape our nation. His pen pictures of many of them add new dimensions from his perspective. Descended from heartland Maori stock, he spent forty years as a respected and influential radio broadcaster. He writes about whanau, home life, upbringing, education and being able to store knowledge as essential ingredients that made him a unique person. This is a warm story, told in Henare’s voice, something like having friendly chats with a favourite uncle! Like any good story, there are highs and lows and Henare is no stranger to these – including a dramatic plane crash that was the start of his broadcasting career. It is definitely not an “I remember when…..” story told in a crackly voice but has a vibrancy which easily blends the past with the present.
I met Te Ua once only, about 15 years ago, when I was involved in implementing the then Government's programme of assisting the establishment of Maori radio stations (a programme which saw more than 20 stations established within five years). I was looking for advice about the kinds of things we should be looking for when considering applications for radio licenses from Maori groups, and any help he could give in assisting me and my colleagues to contact people in the Maori community who might be interested in making such applications.
Te Ua made it plain that he had no advice to give and no help to offer. I can nevertheless remember four things from that discussion of 30-40 minutes:
* Te Ua seemed to be one of those Maori who dislikes Pakeha - at least, those Pakeha who are not of immediate use to him. This is not an uncommon phenomenon, as any Pakeha who has to deal with Maori on policy issues will attest, and it's something one learns to understand and to cope with. Besides, it is always possible that Te Ua simply didn't like me (as many had done before him, and many have done since, and will do again).
* Te Ua took some pains to make it clear that he had nothing but contempt for Maori broadcasters who were not employed by the state (ie by Radio New Zealand or Television New Zealand). All others were amateurish, "commercial" and irrelevant to the process of promotion of Maori language and culture. The Government should not be wasting scarce broadcasting funds in supporting such people, but should instead be increasing the amount of funding for his broadcasting and that of others in the public sector.
* Te Ua had a particular dislike for Kiri Te Kanawa. She had no status among Maori and never would have, he said. When she died, there would be no sense of loss within Maoridom; no tangi. She was "an irrelevancy". I can't remember how this came up, but remember being startled at the vehemence of Te Ua's views on the subject. Had the diva snubbed him at some point, whether deliberately or in some other (possibly imaginary) way? We will never know.
* Finally, I remember my impression on leaving the meeting, which was that I had escaped the company of an unpleasant, angry, bitter, racist and unequivocally little man; someone who was no more likely to try to assist in the development of independent Maori radio than he was likely to fly to the Moon. This was not, in short, a nice person.
This is not the kind of thing one expects to read in a Dominion Post obituary, of course, and neither should we expect such candour there. It was nevertheless interesting to me to contrast the (admittedly very little) I knew of the man with the tone of that obituary, and of the NZ Aids Foundation's fulsome tribute to Te Ua.
Here, for the record, is the NZAF statement, as a corrective to my recollection:
The New Zealand AIDS Foundation is today mourning the loss of its kaumatua, Henare Te Ua, a champion for safe sex and the fight against HIV.
Trustees and senior staff, past and present, have been paying tribute to a man who helped to bridge the divide between Maori and Pakeha cultures and paved the way for NZAF to become a bicultural organisation.
“Henare was an artist, an orator, a visionary. He was compassionate, spiritual and had a remarkable capacity for people, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or sexuality,” says NZAF Board Chair Hoani Jeremy Lambert. “Henare possessed immense dignity and helped guide the Foundation through rough waters. Although he will not be with us physically, Henare will continue to be a source of inspiration for all of us fighting the HIV epidemic in Aotearoa. E koro haere, haere ki tua o te arai honohonotia ki a ratou e tatariana mou.”
Labour MP Charles Chauvel is a former NZAF trustee (1990-94) and board chair (1995). He says Henare Te Ua played “an enormously significant role in helping frame our thinking about how the Foundation should work with Maori in a meaningful, not tokenistic, way.
“Most importantly, he was utterly dedicated to responding to the challenge of HIV in our communities. He was a person of such integrity and with such marvellous networks that he was a huge asset in the struggle against HIV. He was somebody that I admired greatly and loved a lot.”
Warren Lindberg, former NZAF Executive Director (1986-98), remembers being a regular guest on Te Ua’s Whenua programme to talk about HIV and AIDS, and says Te Ua was a guiding voice as NZAF struggled with issues around biculturalism in the mid to late 1990s.
“Everyone was so impressed with his enormous ability to see both Maori and Pakeha perspectives and find the common ground. Henare was clear that takatapui need a place and an identity within the Foundation.”
Jonathan Smith, former NZAF Trustee (1996) and Board Chair (1997-98) says Te Ua’s passing is “a very sad loss to radio, the gay community, NZAF and to me - he was my mentor and my inspirational leader. He advised and guided me as NZAF chair safely through the process of introducing bicultural policies within the Foundation.”
Those wishing to pay their respects to Henare can do so from 10am today (Thursday) at Te Karaiti Te Pou Herenga Waka Marae at 35 Cape Rd, Mangere. From 10am Friday, Henare will be moved to St Matthew’s in the City at 187 Federal St. A service will be held there at 7pm.
NZAF Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier says the Foundation will be supporting both the service at St Matthew’s and will be “honouring the extraordinary gift of his guidance and wisdom at the tangi in Gisborne”, which will be held at the weekend, with burial to follow on Monday.
So Henare got his tangi. Will Kiri get hers? Watch this space.
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