COVID victim a fount of tribal knowledge

A spokesperson for Ngāti Raukawa’s Te Hiko whānau says the death of two brothers of COVID-19 is a huge blow to the whānau and the iwi.

Alan Te Hiko, 58, a worker at the Americold coolstore in Auckland, died on September 4, while his younger brother, 54-year-old Nigel Huirama Te Hiko from Tokoroa, died on Tuesday in Waikato Hospital.

Chris McKenzie says the brothers were much loved.

He says Nigel had spent the past 20 years accumulating and sharing tribal knowledge, stories and whakapapa, and also working on a book of tribal history.

"For the tribe alone he did so much but he also acted as a kaumātua and a link beween the non-Māori community and that has been acknowledged by the vast number of people, councils, MPs, large companies who have come to pay their respects and talk about the contribution he made more widely," Mr McKenzie says.

Nigel Te Hiko is at Ongaroto Pā south of Tokoroa, and he will be buried tomorrow in the family plot at Tokoroa Cemetery.

There were no cases of COVID-19 reported today.

There are four people in hospital with COVID-19, including one in ICU at Middlemore Hospital.

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