Ngarimu Blair is an increasingly influential spokesman on Ngati Whatua issues.
Ngarimu Blair's a serious sort: intelligent, urbane with a dry sort of humour, increasingly he's taking on a heavy leadership role for Ngati Whatua o Orakei.
That doesn't make him the tribal leader; those roles are still filled by his uncles up at the Orakei papakainga. But in 12 years
of working for the tribe he's had a rapid rise as the iwi give him more to do, making him the go-to guy on many issues for Government, community groups and media.
Last year, he massed opposition to the Auckland Supercity which had no room for Maori seats and led that opposition up Queen St.
The 34-year-old's day job is as the hapu's heritage and resource manager, a brief which sees him working with the Auckland City Council and regional bodies.
He's also a tribal trustee, and since 2003 has been involved in Ngati Whatua's claims process which appears to be on the way to final resolution.
In overachieving fashion, he was also a decade-long national rep for touch, going to two World Cups.
Which makes his story of how he came to work for the tribe in 1998 as a 22-year-old, humanising.
"It ended one year on the dole driving my Holden around. It was a clapped out '71 Belmont, in the end not even a country mechanic would give it a warrant. I'd had two days of labouring, didn't go back to collect my wages, didn't put my CV together.
"It was my gap year, a broke gap year. Haha."
You'd think a year might have taken him around the country. No chance, he joked.
"Yeah, I travelled all around Auckland, as far as $20 would get me."
What had happened that year was that his mother Margaret, had died.
"So I lost a little direction I guess. Because she was a big influence on why I've gotten into this line of work, but it's not really work, it's a lifestyle.
"Her and my father [Greg] were my heroes.
"I mean they could have easily have done their nine to five and paid the bills, but they did that and helped rebuild wharekai and whare tipuna, got the Courthouse land back. Got kapa haka going coached netball and rugby. They did it all."
Through that year Ngati Whatua's administrative arm kept an eye on him. Managers knew he'd graduated with a degree in geography and they had a resource management position they needed filled.
It was a job which gave him the vehicle to push the same Maori cultural values he'd been brought up on. For example the importance of maunga to iwi, in a city which had for so long had no concept of them, he says.
He had to hit the ground running.
"When I started, my title was RMA manager but when I asked 'where is the manager to train me?' They said, 'you just got a promotion boy'."
Being younger in his role had its challenges. Learning to work with those sitting across the table from the iwi was difficult in the absence of experience, he says.
As is discovering sometimes you can't be everything to all people.
"Young people try to please everyone and you just have to get good at trying to pick the bigger fights rather than worrying about all the little things. You can't sweat the little things or you end up not sleeping."
Of those who helped steer him along in those early days, the late Sir Hugh Kawharu was someone for whom he has an abiding respect.
"He's what we'd all like to imagine our rangatira of centuries ago were like. A balance between strength and purpose, balanced by emotional connections to people as well. He's otherworldly."
When it came to articulating Ngati Whatua o Orakei's position on issues such as Maori seats on the Auckland Supercity council, Blair didn't mince words. In December when it was announced that the council would have a statutory board he responded:
"Now the decision has come out we have to seriously think about whether we join the new tribe that John Key has made up called Ngati Independent Statutory Board, to be consulted on and probably not listened to on matters affecting mana whenua.
"If they don't have Ngati Whatua at the table then all they'll be left with is RMA [Resource Management Act] bottom feeders drinking cups of tea and eating free lunches."
It's something which could have come out of the mouth of Hone Harawira, but public reaction to what Blair says can often be quite muted, even agreeable.
He can't quite understand why. It makes him uncomfortable when it's suggested that it might be because he's not threatening.
"If I said it and I had a moko on my face? I'd like to think it's because what I said had some common sense in it.
"I guess I've been the product of our parents' and grandparents' generations who really pushed us through university and rugby clubs and so on without leaving behind our Maoritanga. Perhaps, I look like a more acceptable face of Maori activism."
It doesn't surprise people like Pita Turei that his friend has had a quick rise.
The pair met at a council iwi leaders forum 12 years ago when Turei was representing another Tamaki tribe, Ngai Tai. For both men it was the first day at work.
"He was just a baby but the first time I saw him I saw the future. He was as quiet as a church mouse back then."
It was a refreshing change says Turei, who has worked closely with Blair to advance pan-iwi interests in the city.
"He only opened his mouth if he had something intelligent to say. The arena of iwi forums had become the realm of cuppa-tea-committee-sitters. There was a culture of tick the box and get your sitting fee but he wasn't like that.
"I've seen him be dissed time again but he's sincere enough to let that criticism run like water off a duck's back. That's his strength, his patience and sincerity."
Ngati Whatua o Orakei's Grant Hawke, who chairs the tribe's trust board said where he and his brothers and cousins protested and occupied Bastion Point in their day, this generation's job is to lobby and get things done in other ways.
"He's a determined young man and he's pushing the boundaries for Ngati Whatua o Orakei - at the end of the day we're proud of that."
NGARIMU BLAIR
* Ngati Whatua o Orakei heritage and resource manager
* Age 34
* In a relationship. Two daughters aged 15 and 4 months
* Auckland University geography graduate
