Hawke’s Bay mourns rugby stalwart and community leader Tom Mulligan

Tom Mulligan (MNZM), pictured during Waitangi Day commemorations in 2019, was a well-known community and rugby leader. He died on Sunday and his tangi is being held at Matahiwi Marae, ending on Thursday. Photo / Duncan Brown Photography

Thomas Eruera Whanaupani (Tom) Mulligan MNZM

October 4, 1936-August 17, 2025

Hundreds of mourners have been passing through Matahiwi Marae, near Clive, celebrating the life of kaumātua and national and Hawke’s Bay rugby identity Tom Mulligan, who died on Sunday, aged 88.

Born Thomas Eruera Whanaupani Mulligan at the East Coast settlement Te Araroa on October 4, 1936, he moved to Hawke’s Bay as a teenager to attend Te Aute College.

Mulligan never left, living at Matahiwi since 1956 and growing a 42-year career at the Tomoana meatworks, including in upper management.

He and wife Pikihoro Mulligan (nee Ōtene) raised five children, and he developed a deep association with the area and the nearby Tukituki River, and thus an interest in protecting its environment.

That interest, developed in fishing the waters and being aware of the resources, was furthered as marae chair, and then chair and deputy chair of Hastings-area iwi constituent authority Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, spanning 2002-2011.

Mulligan also served as an appointed member of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and has served prominently in other fields, such as Māori tourism.

He was particularly prominent in rugby, provincially and nationally.

Initially a Clive rugby club delegate to the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Football Union, Mulligan served as a member of the union’s management committee from 1973 to 1977 and again in 1982-1990, and managed the Magpies in two terms in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was union chairman from 1991 to 1996, president in 1997-1999 and made a life member in 1998.

At national level, his service spanned the administrative challenges of the end of the amateur era, and the start of the professional era.

Mulligan was elected as the Māori Advisory Board’s elected representative on the then New Zealand Rugby Football Union council in 1995 and, amid restructuring, became a director of the first corporate-era New Zealand Rugby Union board, from 1996 to 2002.

It was an era which saw the All Blacks’ first test match in Hawke’s Bay (and the first under floodlights in New Zealand), against Manu Samoa at McLean Park, Napier, in 1996.

He is remembered in the presentation of the Tom Mulligan Cup, for the Hawke’s Bay Division 2 winners, and his service to rugby will be commemorated at the Magpies’ NPC match against Canterbury at McLean Park on Friday.

Wider recognition came in the 2009 New Year Honours when Mulligan became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Māori.

Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi formally paid tribute when about 80 leaders were called on to the marae on Tuesday morning, and about 10 of them spoke.

It was a reflection of how widely he was known, according to Bayden Barber, the iwi chairman since 2022, who recalled first working with Mulligan on iwi matters when Mulligan was chairman of the taiwhenua and sharing his knowledge of governance to “a young fella”.

“He was a stalwart among the Māori community, stood on the paepae at Matahiwi for many years; he had a lot to offer and gave of his time generously and widely,” Barber said.

While of Ngāti Porou, Mulligan married into Kahungunu via the Ōtene whānau of Matahiwi and Ruahāpia, and Barber said: “We’re glad to have claimed him as one of our own.”

Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union chairman Brendan Mahony said he hadn’t been involved in the days of Mulligan’s administrative years, but was well aware of his contribution and reputation and saw him at annual meetings and other events and used his “wise counsel” on many occasions.

His wife died on March 30, 2015.

Mulligan is survived by children Sonia, Beryl, Take and Andrew, and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

His final service at Matahiwi tomorrow (Thursday) will start at midday.