29 May 2018

‘King of Waitangi’ farewelled after 4 day tangihanga

From Checkpoint, 5:44 pm on 29 May 2018

The veteran activist Hone Harawira says Waitangi will never be the same without the late Kingi Taurua. 
    
Mr Taurua was farewelled at today at Whitiora marae north of Kerikeri after four days of tangihanga.

Mr Harawira said Kingi Taurua was seen as a radical kaumātua but he was above all an old-school rangatira. 

"When I talk about old school, they're the type who make a decision as to what the people are going to do and then they announce - they don't ask for a committee meeting, they don't ask for a hui. They hear what the kōrero is and then they make the announcement.

"He'll be hugely missed in that regard, he had te reo, he had a connection to the old world and to the old people that we don't have anymore, not amongst those left at Waitangi."

Kingi Taurua was one of the first of his generation to adopt the full face moko and wore it with style and grace, Mr Harawira said.