Te Rarawa advocate passes on

VOICE FOR COMMUNITY: Gloria Herbert. PICTURE/JOHN STONE

A gentle yet determined leader who made major contribution to the Te Rarawa settlement has died at 79, just days before the final reading of her tribe's Treaty of Waitangi settlement bill yesterday.

Gloria Herbert was born Te Kororia Areruia Rollo at Pukeahuahu, Pawarenga in 1936 just across the river from where she spent her last years.

She grew up and was educated in Auckland after the family moved to the city just before World War II. In 1953 they returned to Pawarenga, and she met Jim Herbert. She and Jim married in Auckland in 1955 and returned to Pawarenga in 1956 where they bought a small dairy farm, developed the land, and raised a family of three sons and four daughters.

Although Mrs Herbert never held any degrees, she was always a skilled communicator, which helped her to teach her children in their early years of comparative isolation. Once they had grown she continued to use her skills, firstly with local community development in Pawarenga and Hokianga, then regionally in Tai Tokerau.

In the late 1980s she moved into the national arena and, finally, into the international milieu in the 1990s.

Through the years Mrs Herbert 's main focus has been on environmental law reform, consultation with indigenous peoples and local community development. Mrs Herbert has extensive experience working for and alongside iwi, Maori and community organisations.

She provided Maori Liaison Services for Far North District Council for several years, and has held numerous board appointments in the private and voluntary sector.

Mrs Herbert has been involved in a wide range of activities focusing on both Maori and community development in Hokianga and Tai Tokerau, including as the Te Rarawa representative on the Tai Tokerau Maori Trust Board and as a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.

Until ill health struck in 2006 and again in 2008, she worked in a wide range of organisations, particularly for the benefit of her whanau, hapu and iwi of Te Rarawa

She is survived by her husband of more than 60 years, Jim Herbert, six of their seven children, 22 grandchildren and 31 great grandchildren. She will lie in state among her Te Uri o Tai hapu at Taiao marae in Pawarenga.