Newspaper Article 2015 – Tribute paid to community leader

Tribute paid to community leader

Obituary

Ranui Rahari Junior Toatoa
January 24, 1944-December 13, 2015

By Doug Laing
[email protected]

A large crowd gathered at Omahu Marae yesterday to farewell Maori community leader Ranui Toatoa who died suddenly on Sunday, aged 71.

Mr Toatoa was at the time of his death the chairman of Napier City Council’s Maori consultative committee, part of a long association with the council, which dated back to his days as a traffic officer with the council’s now long-gone City Traffic Department.

Mr Toatoa also worked for Work and Income, but his efforts were seen most in his concerns for the environment, and the people and communities around him.

He was prominent in claims before the Waitangi Tribunal, notably Wai55, the Napier inner harbour (Whanganui a Orotu) claim by seven hapu from the shores of the once-expansive lagoon.

He could whakapapa to Ngati Hinepare, Ngati Mahu, Ngai Te Upokoiri and Ngati Hinemanu, and, having grown up around Omahu Marae, had heard history directly from his elders, making him an ideal part of the group driving the claim.

He was there when the hearings were held in 1993-1994, and stepped in as chairman of the claim group for a period when kaumatua Heitia Hiha was unable to do the role for a time. He was there when the Tribunal report was delivered, in 1995, upholding the claimants’ position, and in 1998 when it issued a remedies report.

With those remedies yet to be made, he was a member of the Mana Ahuriri negotiating team working with the Office of Treaty Settlements in finalising redress for that and other Ahuriri hapu claims.

As it happened, Mr Toatoa was in the throes of retiring as the chairman of the Maori consultative committee, said Mayor Bill Dalton, who had known Mr Toatoa about 40 years and who accompanied him as the casket was taken on to Omahu Marae on Monday.

Mr Toatoa was well known at other authorities, including the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, which on Monday posted an online tribute to his efforts facilitating environmental enhancement over Maori land and encouraging the planting of native trees, restoration of waterways and wetlands, as well as the retiring of land for indigenous forest restoration.

Mr Toatoa was the second-eldest of nine children of Mataora and Tangimatua Toatoa and is survived by all except elder brother Tamehana. He is also survived by wife Mida, three of their five children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Photo caption – Ranui Toatoa