Te Heuheu Tūkino VIII – known to all as Tumu te Heuheu, Paramount Chief of Ngāti Tūwharetoa - received an Honorary Doctor of Literature award from Massey University at a special graduation ceremony at Waihi Marae recently.

Guests including Massey university academic staff, Ngāti Tūwharetoa and other iwi representatives, and those from the Ministry of Education and the Department of Conservation witnessed the special award at the end of last month.

Minister of Māori Affairs Parekura Horomia gave the graduation address on behalf of Tumu te Heuheu. Unity was the overriding theme of the address.

Tumu te Heuheu carries the mantle of a long line of Ngāti Tūwharetoa paramount chiefs who played key roles through their pan-tribal influence.

Mr Horomia described how, in 1856, Tumu te Heuheu’s ancestor, Iwikau te Heuheu, called tribal leaders together at Pukawa with the desire to unite Māori against their loss of authority and land. The meeting, which became known as “Hinana ki Uta, Hinana ki Tai”, is now widely acknowledged as the beginning of the Kingitanga.

Horonuku (Pātātai) te Heuheu Tukino IV gifted Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu to the government for a national park in 1887, becoming the first indigenous people in the world to make such a gift. The act is now considered an enduring symbol of the generosity of Tūwharetoa.

The unity theme continued as Mr Horomia described how Sir Hepi te Heuheu – Tumu’s father – played a key role in uniting iwi during the fiscal envelope era and through his establishment of the National Māori Congress.

“Tumu continued the work of what Mason Durie has described as ‘the promotion of the Māori accord’.”

Tūwharetoa hosted the very first Hui Taumata Matauranga in 2001, which was designed to search for Māori agreement on educational policy. Since then Tumu has been a keen and consistent force behind it.

Mr Horomia said Tumu is a man of great humility. “Yet he has built on the national authority and respect commanded by his predecessors, to extend Tūwharetoa’s – and therein this country’s – influence into the global arena.”

Massey’s honorary doctorate is awarded to people who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge and to the betterment of communities.