The Man Beneath the Helmet - Rangitane Marsden

On a miserable mid-winter's day in Kaikohe, a muscular motor bike parks outside the Council offices. The black machine has arched 'ape hanger' handlebars and flashy chrome pipes that swirl along each side and expand at the back to produce a tummy-tingling growl. The rider is camouflaged by a black jacket, a half-face helmet and sunnies.

This scene could potentially be sinister but, actually, there's a delicious irony with both the bike and the bloke beneath the shades and helmet.The rider is one of the most respected iwi leaders in the country - a well-spoken, soft-voiced man who is well aware of the imaginative schism his arrival on a bike like this could generate.

Let's be candid; he promotes it and chortles that he's trying to get used to wearing a black Stahihelm - one of those squareedged German helmets. That'll get the natives chatting.

Rangitane Marsden is in Kaikohe to address Council on the scope and vision of his various interests including his raison d'etre which is Maori development and he speaks
eloquently on the subject. For 22 years he was a public servant with Child, Youth & Family; from 1997 he was one of three negotiators who represented Ngai Takoto claims and now he is CEO of Ngai Takoto and Co-chairman of the Better Local Government Working Party.

The bike, by the way, belongs to his son but there's a quid pro quo deal between them. Since Dad owns the garage he gets occasional riding rights to the 1490cc Softail Harley
Davidson. He has a Suzuki Savage too but that's hardly ever ridden now because, well, after a Harley not much else compares. Given Mr Marsden's negotiating skills and the fact he's got ten kids, you'd have to wonder what else he can contra out of them.

Rangitane Marsden has operated below the Far North's public radar for most of his life but now in his dual roles he is charged with progressing post-settlement development of behalf of his iwi. It means being politically more active but it's in the blood - his cousins are Labour List MP Shane Jones and Mana Party MP Hone Harawira - but unlike the cuzzies he's not altogether comfortable with being thrust into the limelight.

He's standing for Council so he'll get used to it but, having said that, he's not shy about expressing his views in print. In a long letter to The Northland Age at the end of August he made it abundantly clear he strongly rejects a single regional council for Northland.

"We believe the size and diversity of Northland is too much for one single council, and localized priorities and economic, social and environmental solutions will be abandoned in favour of 'bigger is better' thinking and a predominantly colonized view on decision-making," he said, in part.

Not everyone's going to agree with him so he may have to get used to dealing with flak as well. His family history may be of help. His father, Maori, was one of seven brothers who all went to war (one went to both world wars) and who all returned.

"That's part of the Marsden legend," says Rangitane "they went away and came back to realize the value of life and set about making changes and each of the brothers became well-known in particular fields."

The Rev Maori Marsden became the first Maori naval chaplain after WWII and was an original claimant on behalf of Ngai Takoto until his death in 1993. He didn't live to see
the claim conclude in October last year. According to The Northland Age the tribe received $21 million in financial redress, the return of culturally significant sites, the land
under Kaitaia airport and farm and forestry interests.

The Marsdens are many. Rangitane comes from a family of seven (his mother Jane gave
him three brothers and three sisters) and among all of them large families of eight, nine or ten kids is not unusual so it's hardly surprising that when he can (which isn't very often) he just wants to chill.

He likes to cook, not your gourmet variety he says but to feed a family and he likes doing other 'mundane stuff' like fishing, hanging about and listening to U2 or music that
has a theme.He gave up dancing the day disco died.

So far so fairly straight-forward, you think, until he utters something earth-shattering. He actually loves washing dishes! True, it's hard to credit but if that doesn't gladden the heart of every woman this side of the hangi pit, what would?

From his father he inherited a passion for reading cowboy books and in particular those from Louis L'Amour.

"Cowboy books are escapism. They take you to another place in your head, to the wild west and the ranges and the stories about individuals on their journeys can be quite inspiring."

He escaped to the USA himself in early September to see it for real for the first time, taking Louis L'Amour literally at his word; Out of the distance / that holds me enchanted (from a 1939 collection of poems). And either as a demonstration of canny delegation or
astute good management, he timed the trip so that his campaign on the local body hustings was left entirely up to others. He will arrive back barely a week before election results are known.