Eruera Tihema Te Aika Tirikatene

Eruera Tirikatene, of Ngai Tahu, was born near Kaiapoi in 1895. When World War I broke out in 1914 he enlisted in the army and served with distinction in France.

After the war he set up a number of profitable businesses, including a dairy farm, a timber mill and a fishing fleet. While visiting Ratana pa in 1921 he became attracted to the teachings of the religious leader and prophet T. W. Ratana, and began living there. He particularly admired Ratana's use of the Treaty of Waitangi as a way of seeking justice for Maori and settling land claims. Ratana's emphasis on land claims particularly appealed to him, as Ngai Tahu had been actively seeking redress for their claims since the 1840s.

Tirikatene became one of Ratana's key advisers, and led the movement's inner councils. When Ratana decided to win the four Maori Parliamentary seats, Tirikatene was the obvious candidate for Southern Maori. He narrowly missed in the 1928 and 1931 elections. In 1932 he won a Southern Maori by-election caused by the death of the sitting member, Tuiti Makitanara. This was the first parliamentary seat for the Ratana movement.

One of the first steps Tirikatene took was to present a petition seeking statutory recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi. After that he took every opportunity to speak of the Treaty during debates, and frequently reminded the House of Ngai Tahu's claims.

Another major concern was the poverty of his people, Maori unemployment and discriminatory rates paid to Maori for relief work.

Tirikatene felt that working with Labour was the best way to achieve his aims. He helped build an historic alliance between Labour and Ratana. By 1943 all four Maori seats had been won by Ratana/Labour candidates. In 1936 Tirikatene became chairman of the new Labour government's Maori policy committee. As the historian Angela Ballara notes, his speeches after 1936 reflect his joy and gratitude at the racial equality promoted by Labour's social welfare programme.

When Ratana died in 1939, Tirikatene led the political section of the movement. In 1943 he became member of the Executive Council representing the Maori people, and later chaired a parliamentary committee overseeing the Maori war effort. He tried to retain the Maori war effort organisation as a peacetime body, to give Maori real control over their own affairs. But this aim was only partly achieved with the Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act 1945. He was also disappointed not to be made Maori Affairs Minister.

Tirikatene had more success in settling the Ngai Tahu claims. A 1944 settlement, which the iwi never considered to be full settlement of their claims, resulted in a £300,000 payment, to be paid in a series of annual £20,000 payments. He was appointed chairman of the Ngai Tahu Trust Board, set up to manage this fund for the benefit of the tribe. He was also involved in a settlement of the Waikato confiscation claims in 1946.

From 1949 to 1957 Tirikatene was in the Parliamentary Opposition. When Labour won back the Treasury benches between 1957 and 1960 he once again failed in his aim to become Maori Affairs Minister, and in having Waitangi Day declared a public holiday. The most that Prime Minister and Maori Affairs Minister Walter Nash would allow was for 6 February to be "a national day of thanksgiving". It did not become a public holiday until the 1970s. Tirikatene was knighted in 1960. He died in 1967.

See also: biography of Eruera Tihema Te Aika Tirikatene at DNZB website