Otago University opens new residential college named after first Māori doctor

Te Rangihīroa College is named after an eminent Māori doctor.

By Mana Wikaire-Lewis of Whakaata Maori

Otago University today celebrated the opening of its newest residential college, Te Rangihīroa College, named after an eminent Māori doctor.

It is named after the first Māori medical graduate from a New Zealand university, Te Rangihīroa (Sir Peter Buck) who graduated in 1904 and is remembered as a great son of Taranaki and a leader and doctor among his people.

In recognition of Te Rangihīroa, the University of Otago received the name in 2013 with consent from his surviving family members and iwi of Ngāti Mutunga.

Ngāti Mutunga representative Mitchell Ritai, who attended the opening with descendants of Te Rangihīroa, says the university wanted a way to honour Te Rangihīroa’s legacy and bestow his values of ambition, attitude and achievement upon the next generation.

“For us, Te Rangihīroa is an exemplar of those key values and it’s something we want to instil not only in our rangatahi but in the rangatahi Māori who seek to follow in the footsteps of our tūpuna, Te Rangihīroa.

“It’s been a really good partnership that we’ve had to ensure our aspirations, desires, kōrero and narratives are etched into the grain, into the design of this where.”

‘Momentous occasion’

Speaking on behalf of Te Rangihīroa’s whānau, Ritai says the opening was a momentous occasion.

“It’s the first time that we’ve travelled together in such a big group. Eighty to 90 of us made the trip down [including] overseas.

“That’s because it’s such a special kaupapa; to be able to reconnect our relationships with our whānau down here but also to celebrate our tūpuna and everything that he means to us.”

Later in life, Te Rangihīroa developed a passion for anthropology, with particular reference to the migrations throughout the Pacific and the cultures of Pacific peoples. He also became an MP and a distinguished soldier, being awarded the DSO for bravery in the field at Gallipoli and in the Somme, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He was appointed a visiting professor at Yale University in addition to serving as the director of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. Te Rangihīroa was knighted in 1946 and awarded an honorary doctorate of science by the University of Otago in 1937.