Sir Hugh Kawharu was a noted Maori leader and scholar.

Sir Hugh graduated from Victoria University with a BSc and two University Blues. Awarded the Ngata Scholarship, he went first to Cambridge University in England, graduating in 1957, and then to Oxford University where he completed his doctorate in anthropology. On returning to Aotearoa, Sir Hugh quietly began fulfilling the expectations of his kaumātua. He worked in the Māori Affairs Department, as a consultant to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, and as a researcher and lecturer at Auckland University. In 1971 he was appointed the foundation Professor of Māori Studies and Head of Department of Anthropology at Massey University. In 1985 he returned to Auckland University to take up the Chair of Māori Studies, overseeing the department’s autonomous development beyond Anthropology. In 1993 Sir Hugh became Emeritus Professor and the foundation Director of the James Henare Māori Research Centre at Auckland University.

Sir Hugh and
Lady Freda Kawharu

Terā te tai ka ngunguru mai ki tua o Kaipara

He mihi ki te wairua e rere atu nei

Ki a koe e tā Hugh, e te rangatira

He wānanga o tō iwi

He pūkenga pūkōrero

He puna waiora

Outside his university life, Sir Hugh’s public service was immense. He was a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Courts, New Zealand’s delegate to UNESCO, the Ngāti Whātua delegate to the National Māori Congress, a member of the Council for Educational Research, the Māori Council and the Arts Foundation, and, for 30 years, a member of the Auckland Museum Trust Board. He also served as a member of the Waitangi Tribunal, and as Chairman of the Ngāti Whātua o Orakei Trust Board. Sir Hugh steered Ngāti Whātua’s negotiations for the return of ancestral land at Bastion Point or Takaparawhau. In 1991 the land was returned. Sir Hugh continued, with his acknowledged diplomacy, pragmatism and goodwill until in 2006 when an Agreement in Principle between Ngāti Whatua Ōrakei and the Government was secured as a vital step to settle all outstanding claims in Tāmaki Makaurau for breaches of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Sir Hugh was awarded his knighthood in 1989 and other honours followed. In 1992 he was awarded the Eldson Best Medal by the Polynesian Society. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, honorary Fellow of Exeter College, and Patron of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University.

In 2002 he became an additional member of the Order of New Zealand, and in 2005 received Auckland City’s Distinguished Citizen Award.

Sir Hugh passed away on 19 September 2006.