Te Hiku iwi honour their own

HONOURED: Haami Piripi (left), Rangitane Marsden and Hekenukumai Busby, honoured by their own people on Saturday night.

Three men who have received royal honours this year were feted by their own people in Kaitaia on Saturday night. And that, one of them said, was the way it should be.

"These honours are recognition bestowed upon us by our own community," Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi said.

"The Queen doesn't know who I am. She doesn't know where I live. Perhaps it is time that we as iwi thought about how we recognise our leaders."

Mr Piripi, Ngai Takoto Treaty claims negotiator Rangitane Marsden and New Zealand's pre-eminent waka builder and navigator Hekenukumai Busby MBE, who were all named Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit this year, were the guests of honour at what was to have been the annual Te Rarawa ball but became the Te Hiku iwi ball.

The speakers included Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira, who recalled that he and Mr Piripi had shared a police cell in Whangarei after they were arrested at Waitangi 25 years before, having tried to disrupt the presentation of royal honours to Sir Graham Latimer and Dame Whina Cooper.

"And now you've got one. How things change," he said.

The recognition was richly deserved, however. Much of what had been achieved could be attributed to people like Mangu Awarau and Mr Piripi, who had "gone out and fought for the things that are important in our world," he said.

See Thursday's Age for more.