June 09, 2016
Sir Graham Latimer the man for great opportunity
Come the hour, come the man, and the man was Sir Graham Latimer.
That was the tribute paid to the former New Zealand Maori Council chair at his tangi in Pamapuria today by the Chief Judge, Dame Sian Elias.
Dame Sian was part of the legal team for the Maori Council’s battles in the 1980s over land, forests, fisheries and broadcasting.
She says the radical changes to the state being considered by then Government created an opportunity that Sir Graham was willing and able to take.
"It was a time when only someone who was extremely wise, as Graham was wise. Only someone who had spent his life serving the people as Graham had spent his life serving the people and only someone with the faith to move mountains as Graham had, would have seen that this was a tipping point and had the courage to push and change our country and the way we view ourselves as New Zealanders," she says.
Others who have come to Te Paatu Marae to pay tribute to Sir Graham Latimer through the day have included Labour Party leader Andrew Little, the New Zealand Maori Council, and organisations which exist as a a result of his efforts including Te Ohu Kaimana and the Crown Forest Rental Trust.
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