The Māori Party acknowledge with great sadness the passing of a key leader in the history and progress of the Ngāi Tahu journey, Trevor Howse, QSM.

Trevor played a significant role for the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board, driving the exchange of knowledge and the information management required to help drive the Ngāi Tahu claim for his people.

It was through his meticulous organisational skills, his dedication to the task in hand, and his rigorous investigation of files, lands and whakapapa that Trevor became a member of the Ngāi Tahu ‘A-Team' that commanded the negotiation process in the late 1980s right through to the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Settlement Act on September 29, 1998.

'Trevor Howse was one of the key researchers during the Claim; he collated vast volumes of information to present to the Waitangi Tribunal and in doing so he helped to carve out and construct a new history of Te Waipounamu for all our nation to treasure,” Marama Fox, Co-leader of the Māori Party says.

'Trevor was well known across Aotearoa – whether it be through shearing in the Wairarapa, driving trucks in Gisborne, or in supporting other iwi to understand, for example, how the land bank process was managed between Ngāi Tahu and the Crown.”

'We particularly recognise his discipline and belief in the importance of whakawhanaungatanga, through his skilful negotiations with the iwi of Te Tauihu. In many respects, Trevor laid the path for the transformational approaches we have now witnessed with the nine iwi of Te Waipounamu working together for Whānau Ora (Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu).

'As the lead researcher of the claim, Trevor exerted relentless energy in exploring the national archives at the Alexander Turnbull Library, wading through volumes of departmental papers, searching our original sources to lay the foundation for the claim. He later carried that same spirit of endeavour to the Cultural Mapping Project that has been so vital in distinguishing Ngāi Tahu identity.”

'Legends of his ilk traverse a sacred bridge between the footprints our tupuna left behind and the world our mokopuna will inherit” ended Ms Fox. 'Our sincere sympathies are extended to the whānau at Tuahiwi as those across Ngāi Tahu and beyond come to pay their last respects to the man they affectionately called ‘the Great Weka of the People'.”

SOURCE: Offices of Marama Fox & Te Ururoa Flavell