Ngāti Rereahu and Ngāti Maniapoto will today bury one of their most inspiring leaders.
Piripi Crown died at his home on Saturday aged 65.
He was awarded a Queens Service Medal last year for services to his people as leader, kaumatua and rangatira.
Mr Crown was paralysed from the waist down in a pig hunting accident but continued to work at the Fabia shoe factory.
He also took over responsibility as principal claimant for Ngāti Rereahu, achieving a settlement in 2011.
Hauraki-Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta says his death is a blow.
"Piripi has been such a strong presence in Maniapoto. He's stewarded some of the local history about Rereahu, about Maniapoto over these past 20 years, so he is definitely seen as a vessel of knowledge for our Maniapoto iwi and he has also maintained positive relationships with local government and the local business community, We will be sad to lose him," she says.
The funeral service for Phillip Ngawhira Wiremu Crown is at 11am this morning at Te Tokanganui-ā- noho Marae in Te Kuiti, followed by burial at Waiatara Urupa in Benneydale.
He rongomaiwhiti nō tuawhakarere kua nunumi i te tirohanga kanohi
Hei te rā nei tanumia ai e Ngāti Rereahu mē Ngāti Maniapoto tō rātou rangatira whakaaweawe ā
Piripi Crown.
I mate ia i te rāhoroi nei, e ono tekau mā rima ōnā tau.
I whakawhiwhia ia ki te tohu ā te Kuini i tērā tau mō tana whakapau kaha ki te hāpai i tōna iwi.
Koia tētahi ō ngā kaikōkiri matua i te tono raupatu ā Ngāti Rereahu.
Noo reira, e te mātāpuputu ō Rereahu, Maniapoto, haere atu rā
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