Legacy of selfless service lives on as community leader laid to rest

BY TAHU POTIKI

OPINION: It seems to me that 40 or 50 years ago our communities were much more prepared to selflessly muck in to get things done.

I certainly remember things like Sunday School, bottle drives, working bees and bring-and-buys all underpinned by volunteer community work attempting to support local organisations.

In recent times we are much more likely to set up a fundraising committee and identify sources of funding like COGS (the Community Organisation Grants Scheme) or the community trusts before we ask how much we can raise from our own humble jam-making or cake-baking efforts.

The proliferation of Lions and Jaycees clubs that were active in nearly every community across New Zealand have diminished significantly and the activities that were traditionally associated with such entities have also decreased. It also appears that some of the feeder-type organisations are also struggling for membership.

When I was a young person, and even more so in my father's day, there were the Cubs, Scouts, Brownies, Girl Guides, Girls Brigade, Boys Brigade, Air Training Corp and the Sea Scouts. All of whom attracted viable membership as mums and dads gave up their own time to meet on weekday evenings to run games, test little kiddies for scone-making merit badges and organise weekend camps.

This is only one facet of our community and the commitment that its members make. School boards of trustees, sports clubs and other extracurricular activities, not imagined 50 years ago, consume the spare time of today's modern parents, meaning that some of the more traditional institutions, beyond the interests of our own nuclear family units, have suffered significantly.

Today, the way that we see the world, and subsequently interact with each other, has changed dramatically and as a consequence our contributions are less selfless. Time seems more precious as our time away from work is filled up with incessant email annoyance, cellphone harassment and the barrage of multi- media distractions that are now commonplace for most of us. The stolen moments to be shared with family need to be genuinely family oriented or they are not considered worthy of the investment.

As a result of our modern "noise"- filled society people who give selflessly beyond the parameters of their salary or their family are few and far between.

I am particularly reminded of that fact this week because the South Island Maori community has lost a man whose life was, in part, defined by selfless service to the wider community and particularly to Maori.

Te Pura o te Rangi Parata was from a long line of community leaders but most notably Tame Parata MHR, who was prominent in political, economic and social leadership during the late nineteenth century. Tame introduced agricultural reform to the small community within which he grew up and, from his position in Parliament, he led social and health changes for small Maori communities throughout New Zealand.

Nearly all of Tame's 11 children were community leaders in religion, politics, culture and sports. His son Ned is considered the father of Maori rugby as an exemplary sports administrator leading the independent development of Maori rugby as we understand it in modern times. This legacy of service, and his chiefly whakapapa from the southern regions of the South Island and the Wairarapa, no doubt had a major influence on Pura o te Rangi whilst being raised by his elderly aunty. He and his wife, Reihana, were fully committed to this southern Maori community and their work has left a permanent impact upon the educational, cultural, political and social institutions of Canterbury, Ngai Tahu and the South Island.

I accompanied Pura as he made his final visit to Rehua Marae in central Christchurch and I was moved by the speeches of farewell that were made. When his ancestor Tame Parata passed away and the poroporoaki speech was being made, a chief of the time, Henare Te Maire, made the following address.

"The great pillar of our house is broken asunder. Our shelter from the blast and cold is gone. What can we do but bow down to the inevitable hand of death. Go our friend, go by the paths trodden by your illustrious dead. Go, old sire, by the morning tide, and we will follow by the evening tide."

Ironically a modern day chief named Henare Rakihia Tau, named after the original Henare Te Maire, spoke very similar words to Pura o te Rangi as he lay in the house at Rehua. "The great tree of the forest has fallen and the sound reaches afar beyond even the distant horizon."

Just as the legacy of honorific speechmaking has been transmitted from generation to generation so has the commitment to service. I know the children of Pura o te Rangi and I am reassured that this admirable quality survives in a new generation.

- © Fairfax NZ News