What can you say about the Peters clan, both Ngāti Wai and Clan McInnes – other than to say they have service in their veins.
For Jim Peters MNZM, who has died aged 88 or 89, that service was never confined to Parliament, politics or public office.
In many respects, politics was simply another chapter in a much bigger story.
Jim Peters was an educator, a principal, a regional leader, a university leader, an advocate for the North and, yes, for three years, a Member of Parliament.
But reducing Jim Peters to being an MP — or simply describing him as the brother of Winston Peters — would miss the measure of the man.
He was a rangatira in his own right.
And his classroom was considerably bigger than Parliament.
My first encounter with Jim
Not many people know this, but I first met Jim in 1993.
It was fleeting and, somewhat embarrassingly, it happened because I had initially mistaken him for Winston.
Looking back now, perhaps that story says something about the way Jim’s public life was sometimes viewed from outside the North.
The Peters name was already synonymous with Winston.
But to mistake Jim merely for his brother would itself be a mistake.
Because Jim Peters had his own mana, his own path and his own formidable record of service.
Sure, he would eventually become an MP.
But long before Wellington came calling, he was a towering educator — albeit, by all accounts, with rather more softness than gruffness.
He was the kind of leader whose influence was measured not simply by speeches delivered or elections won, but by the people who passed through his classrooms, his school, his council chambers and later the university.
Irrespective of politics, New Zealand is all the better for his service.
From Kawakawa to the classroom
James Leonard Peters was born in Kawakawa in 1937, of Ngāti Wai and Clan McInnes descent, with other biographical records also identifying his Ngāti Hine and Ngāpuhi connections. He attended Whananaki Primary School before heading south to Wesley College.
Education would become one of the great constants of his life.
Jim studied History and Political Studies at the University of Auckland before completing a Diploma of Teaching at Auckland Teachers Training College.
He went on to become Head of Department for History, Geography and Social Studies at Mount Albert Grammar School.
Then, in 1987, he returned North and took on one of the most significant roles of his life — Principal of Northland College in Kaikohe.
He would remain there until 2002.
Fifteen years.
An entire generation of rangatahi passed through Northland College while Jim Peters was its principal.
Think about that for a moment.
Political careers are counted in election cycles.
Teaching careers are counted in generations.
A politician may deliver a speech that is remembered for a day, a week or perhaps a year.
A great educator can say something to a 15-year-old that stays with them for the rest of their life.
That was the arena in which Jim Peters spent much of his working life.
Service to Te Tai Tokerau
His commitment to education ran alongside another passion — service to the North.
Jim joined the Northland Regional Council in 1989, eventually becoming its chair from 1995 until 2001. He continued serving as a regional councillor until 2007.
Those dates tell their own story.
He was simultaneously helping lead a major secondary school and serving in regional government.
This wasn’t somebody who discovered public service when a political party put his name on a ballot paper.
Public service was already his life.
For Jim, the communities of Te Tai Tokerau weren’t an electorate to be visited during a campaign.
They were home.
Then came Parliament
In 2002, Jim Peters entered Parliament as a New Zealand First list MP.
He served until 2005, including on Parliament’s Local Government and Environment Committee.
Of course, the family connection was impossible to ignore.
His younger brother Winston was already one of the most recognisable and formidable figures in New Zealand politics.
His brother Ian Peters had also served in Parliament.
Few New Zealand families can claim that kind of political whakapapa.
But Jim never needed Winston’s political shadow to give him standing.
By the time he entered Parliament, he had already spent decades teaching, leading schools and representing Northland.
Parliament didn’t make Jim Peters somebody.
Jim Peters arrived there already having become somebody.
Perhaps one of the most revealing moments came after he had left Parliament.
In 2008, the resignation of New Zealand First MP Brian Donnelly created an opportunity for Jim to return to the House through the party list.
He stood aside, allowing Dail Jones to take the seat instead.
There are many people who spend their political lives trying desperately to get into Parliament.
There are considerably fewer who, when the door opens again, are capable of saying somebody else can walk through it.
Back to education
After Parliament, Jim returned to the world that had defined so much of his life.
The University of Auckland appointed him to senior Māori leadership in 2006, where he served as Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori, extending his contribution to education from secondary schools into one of the country’s largest universities.
Once again, there was a familiar thread.
Young people.
Education.
Māori advancement.
Community.
Service.
The institutions changed.
The kaupapa really didn’t.
Recognition that was richly deserved
In the 2008 New Year Honours, Jim Peters was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to local-body affairs, education and the community.
Those three areas almost perfectly summarise his public life.
Not celebrity.
Not power.
Not politics.
Local government. Education. Community.
Service.
When news of his death reached Parliament this week, Speaker Gerry Brownlee informed the House and MPs stood for a period of silence in his memory.
New Zealand First remembered one of its life members and foundational figures as a man respected for his wisdom, integrity and principled guidance.
But there will be other tributes that will never make the news.
Former students remembering their principal.
Teachers remembering a colleague.
People across Northland remembering a councillor.
University staff and tauira remembering a leader.
Whānau remembering Jim.
Those are perhaps the tributes that matter most.
More than a famous surname
There is an unavoidable tendency when someone comes from a famous family to explain them through the person everyone already knows.
Jim was Winston Peters’ brother.
That is factually true.
But it is nowhere near enough.
Jim Peters was an educator who became an MP.
A principal who became a parliamentarian.
A Northland leader who went on to help lead Māori advancement within the University of Auckland.
A man whose public service stretched across decades and across institutions.
And that brings me back to that fleeting encounter in 1993.
I mistook him for Winston.
Thirty-three years later, as we mark Jim’s passing, I am reminded of why that was such an easy mistake for a young person to make — and why, with the benefit of everything we now know about his life, it was also such a great mistake.
Jim Peters never needed to be mistaken for anyone.
He had his own story.
His own achievements.
His own mana.
His own legacy.
Service in their veins
What can you say about the Peters clan?
Ngāti Wai and Clan McInnes.
A whānau that has given this country parliamentarians, educators and community leaders.
There will inevitably be much written about the political dynasty.
But Jim’s life reminds us that public service does not begin at the doors of Parliament, and nor does it end there.
Sometimes it begins in a classroom.
Sometimes it is found in the principal’s office of a school in Kaikohe.
Sometimes it is around a council table in Northland.
Sometimes it is helping Māori students find their place inside a university.
And sometimes it is simply the accumulated impact of decades spent believing that education, community and service matter.
Jim Peters gave much of his life to those things.
New Zealand is richer for that service.
Te Tai Tokerau is richer for it.
And generations of students who encountered Mr Peters, Principal Peters, Jim — or simply a rangatira who believed in education — carry part of that legacy with them.
To the Peters whānau, to Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi and Clan McInnes, and to all those who knew, worked with, learned from and loved Jim, we extend our aroha.
Haere rā e te rangatira.
Haere ki tua o te ārai.
Moe mai rā, Jim Peters.
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