Tapu Misa: A white man for whom I have the greatest respect

A few readers have felt compelled to chide me about my ingratitude to white folk. Where would your people be, they ask, if it hadn't been for the white man? They're always eager to provide the answer: back in the Stone Age.

Naturally, I have a different answer. The iconoclastic documentary maker Michael Moore, of Bowling for Columbine fame, has another.

In his book Stupid White Men he blames many of America's social and economic problems on, yes, stupid white men - in particular George W. Bush, whom he refers to as the Thief in Chief (on account of the electoral sleight of hand that got him into the White House).

Given the way Dubya has been so hell-bent on having his war with Iraq, I'd happily buy into Moore's (mostly) entertaining rant.

But that's not what this column is about. In fact, at the risk of giving comfort to the aforementioned readers, I'm devoting this one to praising one ageing white guy - Gary Wilson, who has made a huge contribution to New Zealand journalism and in particular to Maori and Pacific media.

It seems important to mark the occasion of one of his babies, Mana Magazine, surviving its first 10 years to reach that magical 50th issue. According to the latest ACNielsen survey, readership has just climbed from 125,000 to 138,000.

Since I know first-hand what a lean or, as Gary is wont to say, raggedy-arsed operation this is, I can tell you that this is no mean feat.

I don't know any other media organisation as tightly run, or where staffers (Maori, Pakeha and the occasional PI like me) are expected to turn their hand to magazine writing one minute and radio news reporting the next. And all the time remaining faithful to the Maori kaupapa, or philosophy, of the place.

It's a unique kaupapa - a mixture of respect and irreverence. Everyone gets called by their first names, even silly knighthood titles are dispensed with. But that's Mana Maori Media, for you, an organisation set up in 1990 by Gary and Maori journalists Derek Fox and Piripi Whaanga.

Both have moved on since then (Derek plays a koro-at-large role in the magazine), but Gary and a small staff of Maori and Pakeha continue to churn out daily programmes for National Radio and iwi stations, as well as the bi-monthly magazine.

I met Gary more than 20 years ago on the first of many introductory courses for Maori he'd managed to lobby the then Department of Maori Affairs to sponsor. Later, it was Gary's vision and insistence that got journalism courses off the ground for Maori at Waiariki Polytech, and for Pacific Islanders at Manukau Tech.

Through a combination of encouragement and nagging, he persuaded quite a few of us to give journalism a go, which was rather an achievement considering most of us had not even considered it before then. He helped to get me in through the door at the Wellington Polytechnic journalism course and later into the Herald.

Since then he's been a mentor, though admittedly a somewhat unlikely one. Apart from being a fretful Pakeha guy with a penchant for dull shirts, whose peers have retired to more leisurely pursuits, he has a down-to-earth turn of phrase, liberally peppered with unprintable words.

He's also a master of blisteringly honest assessments.

Of course, I'm never going to do him justice here. There's barely any room to go into how a Pakeha of Irish stock, who grew up on a dairy farm just outside Pukekohe, where he had almost no contact with Maori, became such a far-sighted campaigner for Maori and Pacific media representation.

Perhaps it was the fierce independence of mind that his mum, Eunice, encouraged. She used to bike the 5km into Pukekohe every day to work at the baker's and the maternity hospital so he and his brother, Allan, could go to Kings College.

Allan went on to become an internationally recognised molecular biologist before his death, and Gary a teacher and journalist, who once taught at St Stephens in its heyday. Which is where he first saw close-up the kind of talent and vitality that Maori society had to offer.

Later, during stints at the Auckland Star and the Herald, he started to worry about the dearth of Maori in newsrooms and the poor handling of Maori issues in the media. A survey in the late 1970s confirmed there were virtually no Maori in senior media positions. And the few new Maori recruits tended to bale out early.

Though he often despairs that things are not much better today, there's no doubt that without him we wouldn't have strong independent media voices, like Mana for Maori, and the Pacific Island radio stations 531pi and Niu FM.

He's taught quite a few of us that inspired partnerships between Maori, Pakeha and Pacific people can work when there's goodwill on all sides.

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