Farewell, good knight
They came in their thousands throughout the week – gang members, community workers, church, iwi and political leaders.
And yesterday, they bid a final farewell to honour one of the country’s most prominent Maori leaders, Sir Graham Latimer, as he was laid to rest.
Just after 11am, Latimer’s coffin was led through a New Zealand Defence Force guard of honour as he made his final journey from Te Paatu Marae, south of Kaitaia, to the sound of the conch.
Draped in a feather cloak, the coffin was then placed upon the waka, Te Au Kaha, to the sound of a lone warrior voice calling: ‘‘Ko au, ko ia. Ko ia, ko au. I am he and he is I.’’
The waka was towed down State Highway One to the cemetery at Pamapuria where Latimer was buried beside his wife, Lady Emily Latimer.
During yesterday’s service, the NZ Maori Council chair, Sir Eddie Taihakurei Durie, said he would never forget Latimer’s gift of persuasion.
‘‘I didn’t hear much difference between what he was saying and what the protest movement was saying. He would put it differently but he could put it in a way that governments wouldn’t feel threatened,’’ said Durie.
Hone Harawira also told mourners that many didn’t realise just how much Latimer could pull strings.
He may have been the National Party’s vice-president, but behind the scenes he was instructing protest.
‘‘Sir Graham would say, I haven’t had a call from the Prime Minister for quite some time. Get out on the streets and cause some more trouble! He was able to keep tabs on everybody in society, even the ones fighting against him,’’ said Harawira.
Latimer took on the Crown in 1987 by famously mortgaging his own farm with Lady Latimer’s support.
It led to a Court of Appeal case that protected Crown assets from being sold off by new State-Owned Enterprises rather than being returned to Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi. In 1980, he was made a knight. Yet he frequently took on the government in his role as chairman of the Maori Council
He went on to chair the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, to be appointed a member of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission.
He died at his home near Kaitaia on Tuesday, aged 90.