October 31, 2022
Ryan wove strands of Ngāi Tahu together
Ngāi Tahu has lost a lifelong friend and a trusted custodian of its whakapapa.
Terry Ryan was an acknowledged expert on Ngai Tahu genealogy, working with the Ngai Tahu Trust Board from 1974 and providing critical background for the Ngāi Tahu Claim.
His work gave the board and later Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu the tools to respond to the thousands of people trying to identify their connections to the iwi post-settlement.
Mr Ryan was born in Waipu in Northland and attended Wesley College in Waikato, where his lifelong interest in Maori land title and its link with personal identity was kindled.
His career included spells with the Maori Land Clerk as a clerk and deputy registrar, a trade trainee officer with the Department of Maori Affairs, and spells in parliament as a private secretary and advisor, including helping draft the legislative provision that recognised Maori as an official language of New Zealand.
He was also a Justice of the Peace, Methodist lay preacher and marriage celebrant.
He was awarded an MBE in 1994 for services to the Māori community of the South Island, and made an honorary doctorate of science in 2001 by Lincoln University for contributions to genealogy.
Matua Terry Ryan lay at Rehua Marae over the weekend and will be retruend today to his final resting place in Waipu.