The passing this week of veteran broadcaster Henare Te Ua marks more than simply the end of a brilliant career; it is also a call to a new generation to make a mark as deep and lasting as the one he has left.
Te Ua was raised bymatua whangai after his parents died - his mother Hinehou Ngata from TB and his father Whiu Te Purei at the famous battle for Cassino in Italy.
His adoptive parents could scarcely have been more distinguished: Te Kani Te Ua was a revered orator and his wife Te Rina Te Ua, was the eldest daughter of Sir Apirana Ngata. And in a broadcasting career that did not start until he was 31 and spanned four decades, Te Ua did that noble bloodline proud. His honeyed tones, unflappable demeanour, generous spirit and encyclopaedic knowledge lent distinction to a whole range of initiatives in Maori broadcasting, first with Radio New Zealand's Maori and Pacific Islands programming unit, Te Reo o Aotearoa and later in the magazine programme Whenua which, together with Libby Hakaraia, he helmed until its final broadcast in 2003.
His work was always approachable and inclusive of Maori and Pakeha alike and he did what broadcasters should always do: collected stories of ordinary New Zealanders and showed us to ourselves in a way that made us understand each other better.
Te Ua's death comes a painfully short time after that of Don Selwyn, a titanic figure in the history of our film and television industries, who passed away less than a month ago. Both men leave behind them a fine body of work but they leave a challenge as well: those who follow in their footsteps along paths they cleared would do well to emulate the example that these great men set.
