Iwi mourns Moana Jackson: 'No one in Kahungunu above him'

Constitutional lawyer and author Moana Jackson speaking to Nga Manu Korereo national secondary school speech contest entrants in Napier in 2014. He died early today, aged 76. Photo / NZME

Ngāti Kahungunu and Hawke's Bay are preparing for the last welcome home for internationally-famed indigenous rights lawyer Moana Jackson who has died at Waimana, in Te Urewera, Bay of Plenty.

Born in Hastings on October 10, 1945, he went to Mayfair Primary School and Hastings Boys' High School, and was once chair of a ministerially-appointed board appointed to save now 168-year-old Central Hawke's Bay Māori boys' school Te Aute College.

He is one of five members of the esteemed-level Taumata of Ngāti Kahungunu iwi, which iwi chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana calls the "Knights and Dames of Ngāti Kahungunu".

"There's no one in Kahungunu above him in his expertise and knowledge," he said, noting Jackson had declined formal New Zealand Honours bestowed by the Queen unless she and the Crown would "fully accept" the Treaty of Waitangi and all that went with it.

Jackson passed away early on Thursday.

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.