Ranginui Joseph Isaac Walker (1 March 1932 â 29 February 2016) was a New Zealand academic, author, and activist of MÃÂori and Lebanese descent. Walker wrote about MÃÂori land rights and cultural identity in his books and columns for the weekly New Zealand Listener and the monthly Metro magazine throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Walker was born in 1932 into a farming family on the tribal lands of Whakatà Âhea, near à Âpà Âtiki in the Bay of Plenty. His mother was Mihikore Walker. He was adopted by his mother's sister Wairata Walker and her husband Isaac Walker. He credited Wairata for helping him to learn MÃÂori language and culture at a young age. In his own history of Whakatà Âhea (2007) Walker explained that at this time MÃÂori language and culture were unfashionable, and that his generation was expected to assimilate.
Walker was sent to St Peter's Maori College Auckland at the age of twelve. He went on to attend Auckland Teachers' Training College, and worked as a primary school teacher for 10 years. He gained a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Teaching in 1962, a Master's in 1965, and finished his doctorate in 1970. The title of his doctoral thesis was The social adjustment of the Maori to urban living in Auckland.
Walker met Deirdre Dodson at Auckland Teachers' Training College in Epsom, and the couple were married in 1953. They had three children. According to biographer Professor Paul Spoonley, "The acceptance of intermarriage was an issue for both sets of parents: Walker's parents were concerned that Deirdre was a PÃÂkehàand not Roman Catholic; DeirdreâÂÂs were concerned that their daughter was to marry a MÃÂori."
Walker commented that the country's race problems would be solved 'in the bedrooms of the nation.'
Walker was a member of MÃÂori activist group NgÃÂ Tamatoa and Secretary of the Auckland District MÃÂori Council from 1969 to 1973 and chairman from 1974 to 1990.
In 1993 he became the Professor and Head of MÃÂori Studies at the University of Auckland.
In 2003, Walker became a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. He held a strong belief in Maori Identity, and had stated that William Hobson's declaration that "He iwi tahi tÃÂtou", meaning "We are now one people", in the Treaty of Waitangi, was a cultural attack on the indigenous people of New Zealand.
In the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours, Walker was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to MÃÂori. When the New Zealand government restored titular honours in 2009, he declined redesignation as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Walker believed it was not appropriate to accept a knighthood which would undermine the significance of MÃÂori sovereignty, an issue he stood firmly on. He was only one of two candidates to decline the knighthood, the other being Richie McCaw.
In 2009, Walker received a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement
Following Walker's death in 2016, Prime Minister John Key said Walker was "not only an insightful commentator on important historical and contemporary issues but was a tireless and passionate advocate for MÃÂori".
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark tweeted "Greatly saddened by news of death of Ranginui Walker, one of New Zealand's finest people; eminent academic & author."
Walker published a number of books, including: