Taonga dedicated to Mauriora Kingi's memory (+ video)

DEDICATION: The late Mauriora Kingi's son Te Mauri Kingi and daughter Te Waiwhakaata Kingi-Tait at yesterday's ceremony with Tatau Pounamu. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

One year after his death, the spirit of Mauriora Kingi has returned to the Rotorua Lakes Council chamber.

It was delivered in the form of Tatau Pounamu (greenstone door), a patu paraoa (short handled weapon made of whalebone), originally gifted to the council's Te Tatau o Te Arawa Board in December last year during an official ceremony to recognise the iwi's new partnership with the council.

Tatau Pounamu was made by master carver Lewis Gardiner and gifted to the board by Te Arawa hapu Tuhourangi-Ngati Wahiao and Ngati Tamateatutahi-Kawiti and was today re-dedicated to the memory of Mr Kingi and the role he played in helping found the new board.

Among his many other roles, Mr Kingi was a Te Arawa kaumatua and Rotorua Lakes Council kaupapa Maori director and had just been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit when he died suddenly on June 5 last year aged 53.

The taonga will now be on permanent display in the council chamber, dedicated to his memory and the work he did for Te Arawa, the council, the community and the country.

About 30 members of his whanau were welcomed into the council chamber by the council's kapa haka group and were received by mayor Steve Chadwick, Te Tatau Board chairman Te Taru White, council staff and the council's Kaitiaki Maori director Monty Morrison.

Tatau Pounamu was presented to the council by Mr Kingi's eldest son Te Mauri Kingi and blessed by Reverend Bob Schuster, with Mr Kingi's daughter Te Waiwhakaata Kingi-Tait watching on.

Mr Kingi's youngest son, Tawharau Mohi, was unable to attend.

Mrs Chadwick said Mr Kingi played a huge role in bringing the council up to speed on all things Maori and was a driving force behind the new board.

"I don't think the community ever understood the enormity of his role ... he always knew we could do better with our work with Te Arawa.

"It's a powerful taonga for us to receive," she said.

Te Mauri said he always thought of his father as his "old man" and did not understand what he had achieved until he was gone.

"When I look back, he was always on TV ... but I never realised how many people he had touched during his life," he said.

An inscription behind Tatau Pounamu said the taonga was "something of great importance, strength and high value, and is a traditional term used by Maori to symbolise the making of enduring peace between two parties".