He is expected on Friday at Matahiwi Marae (at Clive, between Napier and Hastings), where he will lie in state for a final service and burial on Sunday beside mother Jane (nee Cunningham) and brother Syd, who died in 2007.
Jackson (Ngāti Kahungungu, Ngāti Porou, Rongomaiwahine), was a man who navigated both worlds of te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā, bringing with him immense knowledge to overthrow the negative impacts of colonisation, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Among numerous exploits were taking the Foreshore and Seabed issue to the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination in 2004, a trip on which he was joined by Tomoana and others, while social activist Denis O'Reilly, of Waiohiki, recalled the role Jackson played in a hui at Moteo, west of Taradale, called to consider a wide claim before the Waitangi Tribunal and which eventually "morphed" into the now ongoing Royal Commission on Abuse in State and Faith-based Care.
A pupil of Hastings Boys' High School from 1959 to 1963, and a prefect in his final year, he graduated in Law and Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, then later taught te reo Māori.
He went on to further his studies in the United States before returning to New Zealand to conduct research for Justice Department Maori and criminal justice system report He Whaipaanga Hou.
He contributed a lot of his training and work towards international indigenous issues, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
He was a judge on the International Tribunal of Indigenous Rights in Hawaii in 1993, and again in Canada in 1995.
He was also vocal towards the October 2007 police "terror" raids, and resigned as patron of the Police Recruit Wing 244 due to his opposition to the conduct of the raids, which he said stemmed from racism.
His death, after a long illness, came just three days after the passing of sister-in-law and activist Dame June Jackson, the mother of MP Willie Jackson.
