Treaty negotiator felt an obligation to his iwi after growing up as an ‘outcast’
Richard Bradley married his partner of 40 years on his 70th birthday on June 24. It was also New Zealand’s first Matariki public holiday. He died 10 days later. Eldest son Riki said the wedding to Stephanie Guthrie was one of a few things on his father’s bucket list to be ticked off before liver cancer claimed him. He was told just before Christmas he had only months left.
But he’d had a good life, he told Riki shortly before his death, from his work to achieve a Treaty settlement for his iwi, Rangitā ne o
Wairau, and repatriation of his ancestors to their home at
Wairau Bar in
Marlborough, to taking his beloved Harley-Davidson across Route 66 in the United States.
Riki said his father did not realise how many people he had touched throughout his life. His funeral in Wellington was filled with government ministers and iwi leaders. ‘‘I don’t think he had considered how important he was in the end . . . he really was a man of the people, but he thought he was just another guy doing his job.’’
Bradley grew up in Blenheim in the 1950s, the eldest of six – a charismatic bunch who inherited their father’s ‘‘gift of the gab’’. However, they also struggled a bit with being part-Mā ori, Riki said.
‘‘Dad would tell me they got a hard time . . . they were the original inhabitants of Marlborough but they were treated like outcasts. I think a lot of Dad’s work was about fighting for what was right, because of his own upbringing.’’
As a young adult Bradley wanted to be a jet pilot in the air force, but an epileptic fit during training ended that dream. Instead, he enlisted in the Territorial Force as a part-time reserve, and served in Singapore for training in the 1980s.
He rose to corporal, and kept fit by running through the Wither Hills after work every day, Riki said. ‘‘He was always into sports, he loved softball, camping outdoors.’’
He started getting drawn into iwi politics as Rangitā ne began work on a Treaty settlement in the 80s. Bradley felt a certain responsibility, as the eldest child, to contribute to his iwi, Riki said.
By the 1990s he had gained a social work degree and became known for helping vulnerable whā nau. ‘‘He always had time for people, it didn’t matter who you were, he just loved people, and helping people,’’ colleague Judith MacDonald (Rangitā ne ki Wairau) said. ‘‘So social work was a good fit.’’
Bradley helped to establish the Rangitā ne rū nanga in its modern form with his late brother John. He became chair in 1996, and oversaw the progression of Rangitā ne’s settlement, leading hearings in 2003.
‘‘The Waitangi Tribunal said it ran like a well-oiled machine,’’ MacDonald said.
‘‘I don’t think he had considered how important he was in the end . . . He thought he was just another guy doing his job.’’ Son Riki Bradley
That was partly because of the fastidious planning of former Marlborough District Council general manager Bob Pennington, whom Bradley had convinced to help organise the hearings.
She recalled Bradley surprising Treaty of Waitangi negotiations minister Chris Finlayson with a birthday cake, which Finlayson spoke about at Bradley’s funeral. ‘‘Finlayson said he would never forget that . . . such a little thing but it meant so much.’’
The settlement process was completed in 2014, resolving complaints first raised by Rangitā ne in a petition in 1861.
M acDonald also worked with Bradley on an aquaculture settlement in 2008, which acknowledged iwi should have been involved as tangata whenua when water space was allocated over the years. Bradley, then-chair of Te Tauihu Fisheries Forum, heard fisheries minister Jim Anderton was staying in Picton. ‘‘So we all went down to see Jim at the hotel where he was staying, and Richard talked him into settling the claims for the top-of-the-south iwi.’’
However, Anderton was concerned there was not the political will to forge ahead unless a major iwi such as Ngā i Tahu agreed to join the settlement, MacDonald said. Bradley managed to get Ngā i Tahu on board, and later 12 Hauraki Gulf iwi joined the process as well.
In October 2008 the Government announced the settlement as a one-off cash payment of $97 million, with $80m coming to South Island iwi. ‘‘It’s also the fastest settlement in New Zealand history . . . [being] under 100 days,’’ MacDonald said.
Bradley’s solutions-focused thinking made him an ingenious negotiator, she said. However, there were personal sacrifices. ‘‘There were so many times that he wouldn’t have been there for birthdays and rugby games, things with the family . . . there is so much hard work that goes into negotiating settlement at that level.’’
Bradley later worked for Fisheries NZ, building relationships with tangata Mā ori and giving advice on Treaty issues. ‘‘Which he absolutely loved, new Mā ori to regale with his tales . . . He was one of the few people that could traverse both of those worlds.’’
He was also involved with Rangitā ne’s repatriation of nearly 60 ancestors from the Canterbury Museum, and encouraged members to undergo DNA testing that connected several with their 700-year-old tū puna.
‘‘You can’t put a price on those things, the things he’s done for Rangitā ne, individually, collectively, it’s been his life’s work, and it’s just amazing.’’
The repatriation also continued the life’s work of their grandparents who had campaigned for their return for decades, MacDonald said, pointing to columns written by Peter Hohua MacDonald in the 1940s, protesting over the unceremonial disinterment.
Nephew Keelan Walker recalled Bradley’s love of aviation history: ‘‘He was the only Treaty negotiator that ever negotiated a Skyhawk into a settlement. He knew they were going to be sold to the States for their top gun pilots, so he got one for Rangitā ne, arguing it had a place in Marlborough’s history, and it was gifted to Omaka, where it is today.’’
Bradley had four children with Stephanie Guthrie: Rikihana, Atarangi, Aaron and Tara; and seven grandchildren. –