Sir Robert Gillies died yesterday at the age of 99. Photo / Andrew Warner
THREE KEY FACTS
Willie Jackson is Labour MP and former Crown Minister.
OPINION
I have been in Sydney this week representing our country at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference.
It’s been a great week, but I felt very sad yesterday when the news came through about the passing of the wonderful kaumātua Sir Bom Gillies who was the last man standing from our magnificent Māori battalion.
It took my mind back to when we were in Government and decided he should be made a knight. The problem we had though was that Bom didn’t want a bar of it!
Then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said to me, nope, there is no chance, we can’t get him over the line, so I said to the boss, “Give me a chance I reckon I can turn him around”.
So after a couple of phone calls to his mokopuna, who were also told by the koroua that he wasn’t interested, I took off to Rotorua to see him.
I will never forget that day. When I got to Bom’s house I walked straight into one of the mokopuna who again informed me there was no chance despite the whānau wanting him to take the knighthood.
He told me that Bom had just finished working on his roof, which I thought was amazing given he was just coming up 97! However, his Koro agreed to talk to me, if somewhat reluctantly.
Anyway, when we finally got together, this incredibly humble man told me in no uncertain terms that I was wasting my time, and he would not be taking a knighthood.
The main reason he gave was that he believed, and these were his words, “I’m a nothing, a nobody, I was just a private”.
He said that he was embarrassed that his name could sit alongside names such as Sir James Henare, Moana Ngarimu VC and Pita Awatere. “It would be embarrassing son, don’t do this to me.”
I was stunned, so decided to switch to speaking Māori. I told him, “Ko koe to mea whakamutunga. E Whakahihi ana te ao Māori katoa ki ou whakatutukitanga.” (You are the last one. All Māori are proud of your achievements.”).
He looked me straight in the eye and said in English, “What achievements?” At that point, I knew that I would have to respond quickly otherwise I would lose this mission altogether.
And clearly in English, because I knew my Māori wouldn’t be good enough, I said, “Matua, you have to take this knighthood, we know you fought in battles and put your life on the line for this country as well as that you should accept this title in memory and in honour of all your brothers who were not given the recognition they deserved and were discriminated against when they returned home.
“They were celebrated by us but did not get the support and kudos from this country. We don’t care that you were not an officer in the battalion.
“All we know is that you are the last man standing and it would be a privilege to honour you and through you, those men in the Māori battalion will also be honoured and remembered.”
My final plea to him was, “We should never forget them, shouldn’t we Matua?”
He paused for a couple of minutes looking at me with tears in his eyes he said, “E whakaae ana au.” (I agree).
He then proceeded to tell me that he didn’t want any hoo-ha, he didn’t want any media or fuss.
At this point, I thought the way he was going, he might want his knighthood sent to him in the post.
So I changed the topic knowing I had got him across the line and we spent the next two hours talking about the batallion , whānau, sport and politics. It was such an honour to spend time with this koroua, he was without doubt one of the most humble but magnificent kaumātua whom I have ever met.
While he might not have been an officer in the Māori Battalion, he was without doubt their greatest advocate and in the end the last man standing was a rangatira not just for the Māori Battalion but for all of us in Te Ao Māori.
E te rangatira Bom, ko koe te tangata whakamutunga i tu , e kore matou e wareware ki to whakapau kaha ki te Ope Taua Māori me o tatou iwi. Okioki I runga I te Rangimarie.
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