Queen's Birthday Honours: Patu Hohepa recognised for services to Maori culture

Patu Hohepa has been made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori culture and education. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Dr Patrick Hohepa
Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori culture and education.
A well-respected Hokianga scholar and kaumatua has earned a top spot in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours.

Dr Patrick Hohepa, known as Patu, was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) for services to Māori culture and education.

Hohepa, who lives in Kaikohe in the Far North and has tribal affiliations to Te Mahurehure, Ngāpuhi and Te Ātiawa, is a renowned teacher and scholar of te reo Māori and other Pacific languages.

He was the first Māori dux of Northland College, and is also a Ngāpuhi orator, genealogist, waiata singer and spokesman, and retains an enduring interest in education opportunities for the people of Te Tai Tokerau.

He is known for his leadership and advocacy of Māori cultural recognition and development, and has raised the profile of Māori culture in New Zealand.

Hohepa is a retired professor of Māori language at the University of Auckland, and was the first to advocate for a marae at the university.

In the 1980s, he wrote a report for the government on the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal and repeal of the Māori Affairs Act.

From 1997 to 2007, he served as the commissioner of the Māori Language Commission, heavily promoting te reo Māori and developing proficiency testing.

He served as a member of Te Waka Toi, the Māori Board of Creative New Zealand, from 2004 to 2008.

He has been a kaumātua for numerous organisations, including as a member of Haerewa, the Māori Cultural Advisory Group of Auckland Art Gallery.

As part of this role, he led the New Zealand delegation accompanying an exhibition of 50 portraits of Māori by pre-eminent painter Gottfried Lindauer to Europe in late 2014.

Dr Hohepa continues to teach te reo Māori and has received awards for his contributions to strengthening Te Reo Rangatira.