Maori leader dies
Respected Maori health and education leader Robin Cooper has died at his home in Auckland.
Cooper was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2015 New Year Honours for his services to Maori health and was until his passing the Emeritus Executive of Ngati Hine Health Trust.
Cooper has worked tirelessly since the 80s and has championed a number of projects for the benefit of Maori.
A founding member of the Ngati Hine Trust in the early 1990s he was its first chief executive in 2005 and remained so until 2013 when he retired from its operational management due to ill health.
The trust has won several awards and in February 2012 opened an internationally acclaimed early childhood education
Kawakawa.
Offering bi-lingual education to at least 100 children, Te Mirumiru Early Childhood Education Centre operates from a new purpose built facility on the grounds of the Ngati Hine Health Trust.
‘‘Rob set the strategy for Maori health and development that became the benchmark for indigenous health development the world over,’’ trust chair Gwen Tepania-Plamer says.
‘‘Maori Health providers form Te Kao in the very Far North to the deepest reaches of southern New Zealand owe their existence to the vision, tenacity and fortitude of Rob Cooper.’’ centre in