12 Facts About Ranginui Walker

Ranginui Joseph Isaac Walker was a New Zealand academic, author, and activist of Maori and Lebanese descent.

Ranginui Walker was born in 1932 into a farming family on the tribal lands of Whakatohea, near Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty.

Ranginui Walker credited his aunt Wairata, a foster mother, for helping him to learn Maori language and culture at a young age.

Ranginui Walker was sent to St Peter's Maori College Auckland at the age of twelve.

Ranginui Walker went on to attend Auckland Teachers' Training College, and worked as a primary school teacher for 10 years.

Ranginui Walker gained a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Teaching in 1962, a Master's in 1965, and finished his doctorate in 1970.

Ranginui Walker met Deidre Dobson at Auckland Teachers' Training College in Epsom, and the couple were married in 1953.

Ranginui Walker commented that the country's race problems would be solved 'in the bedrooms of the nation.

Ranginui Walker was a member of Maori activist group Nga Tamatoa and Secretary of the Auckland District Maori Council from 1969 to 1973 and chairman from 1974 to 1990.

In 2003, Ranginui Walker became a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.

Ranginui Walker held a strong belief in Maori Identity, and had stated that William Hobson's declaration that "Ranginui Walker iwi tahi tatou", meaning "We are now one people", in the Treaty of Waitangi, was a cultural attack on the indigenous people of New Zealand.

In 2009, Ranginui Walker received a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.