Te Heuheu Tukino V11 Hepi Hoani 1919 1987

edmondsallan - Hello - Te Heuheu Tukino VII, Hepi Hoani- Ngati Tuwharetoa leader, trust board chairman
Hepi Hoani Te Heuheu Tukino was the seventh paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, part of a line that traced its ancestry to the tohunga of Te Arawa canoe, Ngatoroirangi. His grandfather, Tureiti Te Heuheu Tukino V, had pressed unsuccessfully for recognition of Te Kotahitanga (the Maori parliament) at the end of the nineteenth century. On his death in 1921 he was succeeded by his son, Hoani, who was the first chairman of the Tuwharetoa Trust Board, and sought to assert the legal supremacy of the Treaty of Waitangi at the Privy Council in London in 1940.

Hepi was born on 26 January 1919 at Tongariro House in Lyall Bay, Wellington, the son of Hoani and his wife, Raukawa Tawhirau Maniapoto, the daughter of Te Maniapoto and Wakahuia of Taupo. His principal hapu was Ngati Turumakina. Educated at St Joseph’s Convent at Waihi, near Tokaanu, in early adulthood he worked on the tribe’s farms and forests. On 27 January 1941, at Tokaanu, Hepi (then a truck driver) married Pauline Hinepoto (Tuutu) Te Moanapapaku, the daughter of Rangihiroa and Horina Te Moanapapaku. Of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Ngati Maru descent, she was to play an important supporting role to her husband throughout his life. The couple were to have six children.

After his father’s death on 27 April 1944 and tangihanga at Waihi in early May, Hepi was installed in office in a ceremony performed by King Koroki. Later that year, in his first act of leadership, he was among those who refused to attend a conference organised by Maori MPs in Wellington, instead attending a gathering of 3,000 Maori leaders and representatives at Ngaruawahia. His early years in office were devoted to consolidation and enhancement of the tribal economic base through the development of farms and forests. In 1956 Te Heuheu became chairman of the Tuwharetoa Trust Board, a position he was to hold until his death.

His successful leadership resulted in the tribe becoming one of the strongest and most independent in New Zealand. It was largely achieved through the use of timber incorporations, which enabled Maori owners not only to gain full value from their timber, but also to invest the profits in buildings and other sources of income. Te Heuheu surrounded himself with skilful advisers, including Pei Te Hurinui Jones, who played a key role in establishing successful incorporations in the central North Island from the late 1940s. In the 1960s Te Heuheu was involved in negotiations with the government over the proposed Turangi township and Tongariro hydroelectric station, as well as discussions over forestry lands and lake reserves.

In addition to his role as head of the Tuwharetoa Trust Board, Te Heuheu chaired the Lake Rotoaira, Rotoaira Forest, Tauranga–Taupo, Motutere Point and Lake Taupo Forest trusts, the Turumakina Tribal Committee and the Aotea District Land Advisory Committee. Wider duties included membership of the St John Ambulance Association, the Tongariro National Park Board and the Waitangi National Trust Board, on which he represented the Maori Queen. He was knighted (KBE) in the 1979 New Year’s honours list. In his spare time he was a keen trout fisherman.

On political matters Te Heuheu followed the family tradition of holding steadfastly to Maori autonomy and independence from government. In 1985–86 he was instrumental in forming the Federation of Maori Authorities, an organisation devoted to improving the management and productivity of Maori land, and served as its first chairman. Te Heuheu’s leadership of a delegation to Prime Minister David Lange in 1985 seeking protection of Maori interests in the state-owned enterprises legislation was arguably the most influential intervention of his career. The insertion in the legislation of provisions protecting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi opened the way for a historic judicial intervention on this issue by the Court of Appeal of New Zealand in 1987. - Till we meet again - Regards - edmondsallan