KEY POINTS:
A Maori educationist and political candidate died yesterday at the end of a week-long campaign tour around the South Island.
Rereamoamo Monte Ohia, 62, was the Maori Party's choice for Te Tai Tonga. He collapsed at home in Christchurch as he prepared to travel to Blenheim to meet party co-leader Pita Sharples and MP Hone Harawira.
Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell spent the morning at Mr Ohia's Christchurch home while waiting for whanau to arrive from the North Island.
He had travelled south from Parliament to support Mr Ohia and watched him address people the length of the island, including at Rehua Marae on Wednesday evening.
"He was a humble, positive guy," Mr Flavell said. "To be honest we're just sort of struggling and wondering what we're going to do."
Mr Flavell said Mr Ohia had been a staunch supporter of Tariana Turia during the 2004 foreshore and seabed controversy - which was one of the reasons he decided to stand, albeit unsuccessfully, in 2005 against Labour's Mahara Okeroa.
Mrs Turia said the party was "broken-hearted" and grieving for a man the whole party loved.
Of Ngati Pukenga, Ngaiterangi, Ngati Ranginui and Te Arawa descent, Mr Ohia spent almost 40 years in education, holding senior positions in wananga, polytechnics, universities, at NZQA and at the Ministry of Education. Since 2005 he had been Te Pou Matua, a senior manager, at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology.
He will be remembered for being part of Te Runanga Nui review group, whose policy in the 1980s led to the legal establishment of Maori-language preschools (kohanga), schools and tertiary institutions.
Professor Tamati Reedy of Waikato University worked with Mr Ohia at the old Department of Education and said the former mathematics teacher was an early leader in the promotion of Maori education.
That passion had transferred to his sons Bentham, the present chief executive of Te Wananga o Aotearoa, and Watson, a founding principal of a kura kaupapa in Hamilton.
"I don't think we can underestimate his contribution to Maori education, and he raised a family of distinguished educationists. Those two boys, they're outstanding."
A committed Christian, Mr Ohia established the World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People, and led education-based aid teams to Egypt, South Korea, Israel, and Hawaii.
He was an international adviser to the indigenous peoples' parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland, Zulu authorities in South Africa and various tribal councils in Canada.
Mr Ohia is lying at Christchurch Polytechnic before being taken to Waikawa, Picton, tomorrow.
He is survived by wife Linda, four children and six grandchildren.
