08 May 2019
Kua hinga te totara haemata o te wao tapu o Te Urewera. Te Wharehuia, kua noho ngu ngā tamariki a Tāne i to wehenga. Kei te hahae te tau o te ate, kei te hotu te whatumanawa, kei te pātuki te tārāuma. Kei te mōteatea ngā mahara mōu, ka huri kaaweka nei koe. He kanohi hōmiromiro, he ihumanea, he kaitiaki nō tōna pātaka iringa kōrero, kua kore. Kua takahia atu rā e koe te ara whānui ki tō tātou tipuna kuia ki a Hine nui i te pō. Kua rere rā koe ki ngā awa akeake ki te haupuranga o te kauheke kaumātua, ki te hunanga aru ra o te tangata hokinga kore ki muri.
Creative New Zealand is saddened to hear of the passing of Professor James Te Wharehuia Milroy (Tūhoe) QSO, CNZM, PhD, who was one of the most highly esteemed experts of te reo and tikanga Māori. A member of the Waitangi Tribunal, Professor of Māori at the University of Waikato, board member of the Māori Language Commission and the Waikato Museum, Te Wharehuia has long been an influential figure in the revitalisation and maintenance of te reo and Māoritanga.
He was also one of the co-writers of He Kupu Tuku Iho alongside Sir Tīmoti Kāretu - the first te reo Māori book to be published by the Auckland University Press.
In 2009, he was honoured at Creative New Zealand’s Te Waka Toi Awards with the Te Tohu Aroha mō Ngoi Kumeroa Pewhairangi award for contribution to te reo Māori.
Nā reira haere, haere, haere atu rā. Waiho rā tatou ki kōnei tangi ai. Kāti rā, ‘He kokonga whare e kitea, he kokonga ngākau e kore e kitea’. Moe mai rā e te rangatira.
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