Tributes Flow after Hawke’s Bay Kaumātua Des Ratima Dies
Georgia-May Gilbertson / Stuff.com / Hawkes Bay / The Dominion Post
NEW ZEALAND (August 23, 2021) — If you knew Hawke’s Bay kaumātua Des Ratima, putting that relationship into words is not something that even his closest friends find easily done.
Ratima died on Sunday, aged 69.
The kaumātua was an integral part of the Hawke’s Bay community, was involved in many projects during the past decade and served in the army for close to two decades.
He received the ONZM in 2018 for services to Māori and became a justice of the peace in 2016. In 2018, he was named Hawke’s Bay Business Leader of the Year.
Ratima organised the inaugural Whakatu Christmas in the Park event in 2003 and contributed to the development of the Whakatu community.
He chaired Whakatu Kohanga Reo for 10 years, reviving it from a struggling early childhood education provider to a successful learning centre.
Ratima was a cultural and environmental adviser for regional and district councils, and a member of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board Māori Relationship Board.
He was chairman of the marae collective Nga Marae O Heretaunga and helped organise various projects.
Ratima was also instrumental in establishing the first military marae in Waiouru in 1995.
He was chairperson of the Te Kupenga A Maui and Whaea o te Ara police committees since 2007, helping to develop strategies to reduce the number of Māori involved in crime.
Close friend and Hastings district councillor Henare O’Keefe said the pair “argued like a husband and wife”.
One particular memory for O’Keefe was a stand-off with the High Court last year, after he and Ratima opposed an application by the Flaxmere Liquor store to renew its liquor license but the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority granted the application.
“The judiciary hit me with quite a substantial fine, and I can recall saying ‘well I’m not paying one cent. You take me to jail and lock me up’. Afterwards when we were standing in the foyer, someone said to Des ‘you going to go to jail with him, Des?’ He goes ‘oh, no but I’ll visit him’.’’
O’Keefe and Ratima met at an early age, as both their mothers were social workers together.
“Des would have to have been one of mine and my wife Pam’s biggest supporters. Whatever we put our hands to, we supported one another.
“It was a very special relationship and not one that you can put on a piece of paper. Our word was our bond and that was it.”
Ratima was a strong voice for Māori when it came to Oranga Tamariki and child welfare.
Midwife Jean Te Huia met Ratima 15 years ago, describing him as an “academic, a scholar and a true gentleman”.
“He was an absolute strong advocate for Māori and we have lost a soldier. I know his family will dearly miss him and so will the community. He could be relied on and he was a man of integrity. You always knew if you talked to Des, he would have your back 100 per cent”.
Ratima, along with Te Huia, supported a young woman after Oranga Tamariki attempted the removal of her 6-day-old baby at Hawke’s Bay Hospital in 2019.
“When I heard the news on Sunday night, I cried. I just thought of all the hearts and souls he has touched. He led by example, and he was not afraid to go into places that nobody else had gone into. He was there to challenge, and he was there to try and make sense of the world and help the best he could.
“We really respected and loved Des, and he will be greatly missed in our community,” Te Huia said.
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the community had lost “an outstanding leader and kaumātua” and was honoured to have worked with Ratima, naming him ‘mayor of Whakatu’.
“Des Ratima was a hero of Whakatu, Hastings, Hawke’s Bay and wider New Zealand – always doing everything in his power to draw people together for the greater good, and to bring about fairness and equity in the education, health and justice systems.
“I was grateful for time with him last week to present to him a mayoral commendation for the unparalleled work he has done for our community. He will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.”
Hawke’s Bay MP Meka Whaitiri said Ratima’s “love and compassion knew no bounds, and you leave a big hole in a world needing that more than ever”.
“Go to your eternal rest knowing you served this country and your community with humility, dignity and strength with a 19-year career in the NZ Army; to your Church Latter Day Saints; to the community of Whakatu as our unofficial mayor; the fierce advocacy, awhi and care to the many whānau struggling amongst us,” she said.
Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson visited Ratima two weeks before he died.
“I met Des in 1998 and we were going into politics together, we were competitors to start off with, and then we became mates. He never got to Parliament but he was a bloke who never needed to.”
Ratima worked closely with Jackson through the Māori Council and was a strong advocate, Jackson said.
“He was one of those special people who would front for you, he was a great speaker, and had special qualities. He radiated aroha and he was an exceptional character,” Jackson said.
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Video courtesy of the TVHB Chatroom
Nature and Māorism: Lessons for the Future
“The Māori voice in environmental issues is a strong voice. Māori are able to argue strongly against projects which impact on the landscape, drawing from their cultural base of knowledge and understanding.
“Māori have always asked for consultation. But as understood by Māori, consultation should occur when the idea is still forming. Not when it has been born, growing and someone remembers that they need to include the Māori perspective.
“Māori reject consultation as a final hurdle. They embrace consultation from the outset. If this pathway is seen as the norm, I am confident that Māori perspectives will be available a lot earlier and last minute pressure points can be avoided.
“Māori are by nature conservationists. Their culture has processes to protect and monitor the use of the environment, and have had these in place from the beginning.
Environmental issues are indeed the food of the future … the place where politicians will stand or fall. Everything has an environmental component.
“Relationships are the model and solution of the future. Māori would benefit by using their achievements at Treaty negotiations to better equip themselves for life in the post settlement era. This includes how Māori will engage with local councils. The interests of Māori and the community might be better served by having co-governance and co-management models developed and implemented as opposed to seats.
“Māori view the world through the lens of whakapapa and mokopuna. Their view is not issue-driven; it is value-driven and based on the welfare of the future unborn generations. The common response to any decision is: “Is what I am doing in the best interests of our mokopuna?”
“Who speaks for Māori must remain within the sanctuary of the marae and hapū. The leadership at this level is determined by the most common denominator of all communities, the whānau. Whānau weigh the eternal interests of the mokopuna and the welfare of whānau when determining who speaks for them. Over this construct whānau have total input. Any construct that removes whanau away from immediate contact or response is not in the best interests of Māori, and therefore any such body or organisation will struggle to be a credible voice for Māori.
“Māori argue that the running of this country, from let’s say 1840, has been in the absence of Maori participation and decision making. Māori would say the country is worse off under the current economic value system than under our people-valued system. Some might stereotype this as socialism or communism, I prefer that it be called quite simply Māoriism.
“New Zealand should prepare for the arrival of a smarter, skilled, bilingual leader that has retained the values of the proverb, ‘what is the most important thing in this world, it is people, it is people, it is people’. Māori will seek changes to the way our futures are managed. We will insist that we sit at the decision making table. We will contribute to the changes needed to return our nation to one that values people and our environment so strongly that all else is insignificant.”
“The Māori voice in environmental issues is a strong voice. Māori are able to argue strongly against projects which impact on the landscape, drawing from their cultural base of knowledge and understanding.
“Māori have always asked for consultation. But as understood by Māori, consultation should occur when the idea is still forming. Not when it has been born, growing and someone remembers that they need to include the Māori perspective.
“Māori reject consultation as a final hurdle. They embrace consultation from the outset. If this pathway is seen as the norm, I am confident that Māori perspectives will be available a lot earlier and last minute pressure points can be avoided.
“Māori are by nature conservationists. Their culture has processes to protect and monitor the use of the environment, and have had these in place from the beginning.
