Māoridom mourns the loss of rangatira Norm Dewes

Matua Norm Dewes in 2016 with Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy as he is made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

by Adam Gifford, Waatea News

Norm Dewes, a champion of urban Māori, died on the last day of 2023.

The Ngāti Kahungunu rangatira had lived in Ōtautahi Christchurch since 1961, when he moved from Wairoa as a 15-year-old to join a Māori Affairs trade training scheme. After qualifying as a foundry worker and working in the metal industry for many years, he became a union advocate. In 1989, he set up Te Rūnanga o Ngā Mātā Waka, an urban Māori authority which now provides education, health, social services and marae activities for urban Māori in Ōtautahi.

In 2004, Dewes stepped in to oversee the management of Ngā Hau e Wha Marae, which was in financial strife, and turned it around to a position of stability. He was the inaugural chair of the South Island Whānau Ora commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga in 2014.

Dewes was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours in 2016.

Matthew Tukaki, who succeeded him as chair of the National Urban Māori Authority, says Dewes was a great friend and mentor.

His leadership spanned urban Māori across the South Island and was instrumental in the response to the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes.

“He was very aware of the issues of how Māori come together in those environments that are not their own whenua, and how they are different from iwi issues – even the difficulties Māori may have reintegrating with their homeland, their marae, their hapū etc,” Tukaki says.

“Norm also had the bluntness to prosecute kaupapa — he was relentless and he played the long game.”

Norman Jack Mei Dewes will be returned to his whānau, hapū and iwi in Wairoa.