June 08, 2016
Latimer able to wager and win for Maori
One of Sir Graham Latimer’s more successful protege's says the former New Zealand Maori Council chair blended native cunning with an ability to wager and win.
Shane Jones says Sir Graham was always a regular in marae, church and tribal affairs when he was growing up. His first job he had after university was through the Taitokerau Maori Trust Board.
Sir Graham was the classic mix with a Maori father and a Pakeha mother from the long-established Kenworthy family of the far north.
"Sir Graham had a hard scrabble sort of existence but talk about a blend of native cunning and an abililty to wager and win. But he calculated his odds and he did not tolerate European folk deprecating or pulling down the name of Maoridom. At the same time he was equally critical of Maori themselves for not stepping up to the plate, and boy did he step up to the plate in terms of that litigation of the eighties and nineties," Mr Jones says.
The tangi for Sir Graham at Te Paatu Marae near Kaitaia will run until the funeral service on Saturday morning. After which he will be taken to Tarakaka urupa at Pamapuria for burial.
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