KEY POINTS:
Dozens of people are expected to gather in Kaikohe soon after Waitangi Day celebrations to mark the centenary of the death of one of the Treaty's early Parliamentary advocates.
The gathering at Aperehama Church on Sunday will mark 100 years since the death of Hone Heke Ngapua, a former MP for Northern Maori.
He was a grand-nephew of Hone Heke Pokai, the Ngapuhi leader known for chopping down the British flagpole four times at Kororareka, now Russell, and leading resistance against the British army in the 1840s.
Mr Heke - he generally chose not to use Ngapua - impressed many at the age of 23 at the second session of the Maori Parliament and was elected to the national Parliament in 1893.
He was 39 when he died.
He tried three times to introduce a Native Rights Bill into Parliament, asking for a constitution for Maori and protection of rights under the Treaty of Waitangi.
All were defeated, though some of its principles were included in the 1900 Maori Lands Administration Act and 1900 Maori Councils Act, the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography said.
It said Mr Heke mixed well with Pakeha in Wellington but never forgot customary protocol and twice helped negotiate a way through potential armed standoffs, once with Tuhoe in 1895 and again in the Hokianga over the dog tax in 1898.
Hone Heke Foundation chairman David Rankin said the cleaning of Mr Heke's gravestone this week revealed a prophecy, "although I am dead, my voice will be heard again".
"For us, this discovery - on the eve of an important day remembering the life of our ancestor and leader - is a tohu, a sign that we must look again at what is important to us as a people, and work towards that."
Mr Heke, who also played a part in introducing rugby in the Kaikohe area, died of tuberculosis.
Among those attending the commemorations will be dignitaries, church leaders, descendents of the Ngapua whanau, and Ngapua's biographer, Professor Paul Moon.
- NZPA
