From head boy and rugby captain to Parliament

Te Ururoa Flavell plans to make his message heard loud and clear in Parliament. Picture / Alan Gibson

His first name refers to a shark, but Te Ururoa Flavell is anything but that by nature.

He does, however, plan to speak up loud and clear when it comes to ensuring Aotearoa is a place for all New Zealanders and that the rights of Maori are not taken away.

Having won the Waiariki seat for the Maori Party, he's looking forward to the new role.

"I want to be a voice for my people, but more than that. We need to look at positive economic development for Maori, in the best interests of Aotearoa for all New Zealanders."

He is of Ngati Rangiwewehi and Ngapuhi descent. The nearly 50-year-old husband of Erana Hond-Flavell and father of five appears to have been born to lead.

At Sunset Intermediate (now Sunset Junior High School) in Rotorua he was the head councillor - the equivalent of head boy - and at St Stephen's boarding school in Bombay, just south of Auckland, he became head boy, captain of the 1st XV rugby team and male leader of the school's kapa haka team.

Leaving St Stephen's at age 18, he headed into dual studies at Auckland Teachers College and Auckland University, where he took Maori and anthropology studies.

After graduating from both tertiary institutions, he started a career in teaching in Kaikoura before going overseas on his OE.

Returning to his homeland a few years later, Mr Flavell taught at Fairfield College in Hamilton and then Tauhara College in Taupo.

Keen on ensuring the survival of the Maori culture, he became an adviser in Maori education at Taranaki Polytechnic, where he developed the Maori programme and went on to become head of department and head of faculty.

While in New Plymouth he helped to set up an iwi radio station, and both he and his wife Erana were instrumental in setting up a kohanga reo and kura kaupapa in the town.

It was while he was working at the radio station that Mr Flavell discovered he needed to practise what he preached, and began using his tupuna (ancestral) name - Te Ururoa - instead of allowing people to call him by his nickname, Jimbo.

"We were encouraging our people to reclaim their tupuna names for the next generation ... It just seemed a contradiction when I was using a transliterate," he said.

When he moved on to Whakatane, Mr Flavell was foundation head of school at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi. His first job on his return to Rotorua was head of Te Pakaro Ihenga at the Waiariki Institute of Technology, a position he held until being made redundant in 2000.

Since then he's been in business working as an education consultant for the Ministry of Education and Department of Health as Te Matakahi Ltd.

It was while taking part in the hikoi protesting against the foreshore and seabed legislation that he became interested in politics. He was interim co-leader of the Maori Party until Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia took over the leadership roles.

"I declined at first and then I just happened to fall into it. People felt I could make a good contribution and asked if I would do it, so I took the bull by the horns."

Mr Flavell has faith in his new party. "I'm in Government for the betterment of Maoridom."

- NZPA