Obituary: Anne Delamere, DCNZM

Anne Anituatua Delamere was considered someone who could get things done.

Public servant. Died aged 85.

The death of long-serving public servant Anne Anituatua Delamere at the age of 85 has been felt deeply across Maoridom.

Miss Delamere joined the Department of Maori Affairs in 1950, when the majority of Maori still lived in rural areas. She was one of a distinguished group of former service people, including James Henare, Pita Awatere and John Rangihau, who were recruited as welfare officers.

These officers played a major part in the massive movement of Maori into the cities during the 1950s and 1960s, lining up jobs, helping them with housing and education, and encouraging them to hold on to their culture.

After working in Whakatane under district officer Norman Perry, Miss Delamere was given a scholarship to study social work at Victoria University. This was part of a long-running effort by the department and the university to professionalise the Maori Affairs workforce and to understand the tribal and community development processes it was part of.

In 1961, Miss Delamere was asked to help establish and run the Maori Education Foundation. In that role she interviewed thousands of school leavers, setting them on the track to higher education and watching and encouraging their progress.

"Just about every Maori who came into Wellington in the 1960s and 1970s was mentored by Auntie Anne," says former MP John Delamere, her nephew.

Former Maori Affairs deputy secretary Neville Baker says Miss Delamere was an important link between Maori Affairs and other government and private agencies, showing them how to work with Maori people.

"Very much to the fore was the whole philosophy that Maori women were instrumental in helping families with their education and health and employment and so forth. Anne was able to harness the strength of Maori women, not unlike Whina Cooper in many respects," Baker said.

"She was profoundly honest, someone who could ring people at all levels of business or bureaucracy and they would listen, and because she was involved, she usually got a result. People would take on employees based on her say so, and she would never let a placement go without a follow-up."

Miss Delamere contributed to organisations as diverse as the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Aged Concern, Pacifica, the New Zealand Planning Council, the Prison Chaplain's Advisory Service and Maori sexual health organisation Te Puawai Tapu.

Miss Delamere, from Te Whanau Apanui and Te Arawa, was born in Rotorua on May 15, 1921.

She died on May 26. She attended Queen Victoria Maori Girls Boarding School in Parnell, and joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in 1942, spending the war at Defence Headquarters in Wellington as part of the team coordinating the Maori war effort.

In 2004 Miss Delamere was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, the country's second highest honour.