He is the subject of numerous online tributes, commonly saying that while he was Pākehā he was held in as high esteem among Māori as any kaumātua or rangatira, particularly for his ability to recite the names of any person in a whakapapa without need for written reference. He had in-depth knowledge of the history, genealogy and early occupation of Māori in the Ahuriri and Heretaunga regions of Te Matau-a-Māui, Hawke’s Bay.
He was taken into the confidence of kaumātua, who once told him, when he was considering further university studies, that he would learn more by staying back in Hawke’s Bay, where they would pass on the knowledge. He traipsed the rohe of Ngāti Kahungunu pinpointing historical urupā and other sites, and read thousands of pages of history, including Native Land Court minute books.
In the mid-1990s hapū of Moteo, Tangoio and Petane honoured him as a kaumātua, presenting him with a korowai and a greenstone pendant. He was made an honorary member of the collective seven hapū of Te Whanganui Ā Orotū, the once expansive inland waterway that stretched across the area now known as Napier City. In September this year, Parsons was accorded the Meritorious Achievements honour in the Napier City Council Civic Awards.
Dame Claudia Orange, winner of the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book of the Year for her 1987 book The Treaty of Waitangi, has in the past also acknowledged Parsons’ long-time involvement with the Waitangi Tribunal hearings in Hawke’s Bay.
Mainly held in the 1990s, the hearings involved huge amounts of research beforehand and afterwards as claims accepted by the Tribunal were not settled by the Crown for several more decades.
Notable was one of the earliest lodged before the Tribunal, WAI55 (Te Whanganui Ā Orotū, Napier Inner Harbour). It was lodged in 1988, and subject of both findings and remedies reports in the 1990s, yet not settled until after the passing of the Ahuriri Hapū Claims Settlement Act in 2021.
There was also what Taiwhenua o Te Whanganui Ā Orotū chief executive Matt Mullany calls his “towering contribution” to the tribunal’s 2004 Mohaka Ki Ahuriri report — covering 20 historical claims heard between November 1996 and February 2000, and concerning loss of land as a result of pre-1865 Crown purchases, the functions of the Native Land Court, the 1867 Mohaka-Waikare confiscation, and later Crown purchasing, and barriers to use of remaining land.
It was an interest developed from grandfather Leo Lopdell, a fluent speaker of Māori, who farmed leased Māori land at Bay View. He took Parsons on horseback to visit friends, among them a connection with te ao Māori, and Bob Mokopuna Toki Cotterell, kaumātua, renowned whakapapa expert of Wharerangi, and foundational mentor.
Another influence was James Waitaringa Mapu, a Ngāti Hinepare kaumātua and statesman, who married Ārepa (Alpha) Hineiaia Tareha.
He was a published author and contributed to the multi-authored West to the Annie: Renata Kawepo’s Hawke’s Bay Legacy, covering the area of Hawke’s Bay bounded by the Ngaururoro and Tutaekui rivers, Fernhill and the Kaweka Ranges, and published by the RD9 Historical Trust in 2002.
He was extensively consulted by iwi, hapū and councils, and regarded as an authority on issues, including the 1824 Battle of Pakake and the 1866 tragedy of Omarunui.
Most of his life story was told in a four-and-a-half-hour interview with the Hawke’s Bay Knowledge Bank in 2017.
He related enormous details of history, including the death of his father in a car crash in 1954, how the family was held together by his mother “through thick and thin” and his days at Taradale School and Napier Boys’ High School, where he started in 1956. At school, he was a champion tennis player and later became a Hawke’s Bay senior representative player and selector.
Parsons went to teachers' college and, after teaching at several schools in Hawke’s Bay as far south as Porangahau, spent five years in Paris and London working for the Berlitz Language Schools teaching English as a foreign language. He then taught the staff of an influential industrialist in Italy.
In 1974, he was hired by Hereworth School in Havelock North and also taught for 10 years at Hastings Boys’ High School.
He is survived by his sister Kerry Smart and brother Michael.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
