Sir Wira Gardiner, soldier, public servant and founding member of the Waitangi Tribunal, has died:
. . . Sir Wira Gardiner was of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pikiao, Whakatōhea and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent.
He had a long career as a senior public servant. He was the first director of the Waitangi Tribunal, the first Chief Executive of the Ministry of Māori Development (Te Puni Kōkiri) and the first Māori to be appointed as the National Director of Civil Defence.
Sir Wira served in the Vietnam war and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel, the highest ranking Māori officer at the time.
He gained degrees from Canterbury University and Kings College at the University of London, and wrote extensively on a range of subjects such as kapa haka, the Māori Battalion and a biography on the life of former Minister of Māori Affairs, Parekura Horomia.
Building Māori-Crown relationships was his specialty especially in Treaty of Waitangi settlements, fisheries, broadcasting, local and regional government and tertiary education. . .
He was also an active, and valued, member of the National Party and a man who earned the tribute kua hinga te tōtara o Te Waonui a Tāne’ (the tōtara in the great forest of Tāne has fallen)..
The message from his whanau announcing his death is here.
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