Dr. Whakaari Rangitakuku Metekingi C.B.E.

Tu Tangata, Issue 4, 1 February 1982, Page 37

Dr. Whakaari Rangitakuku Metekingi C.B.E.

POROPOROAKI/Obituaries

Papaa te whatitiri i te rangi; hikohiko ana te uira; ngateriteri ana te whenua; pookarekare ana te moana i te tootara nui kua hinga ki oona motu o te taihauauru aa, piko iho te tihi o Ruapehu, rakerake ana ngaa wai o Whanganui, auee ana te puni wahine ki runga o Te Aati Haunui-a-Paapaarangi, puta noa ki roto o Ngaati Apa-i-haapai-taketake: ko ngaa putanga whakaaro eeraa o te taniwha nei o aituaa kua maunu nei i te rua.

Ko WHAKAARI RANGITAKUKU METEKIINGI teenei ko te Kiingi o Whanganui naana i poipoi ngaa whenua o ona tuupuna ka puta nei ko ngaa Kaporeihana o teenaa iwi; he tangata i maaia hoki ki toona haahi i te Haahi Mihingare aa, tohungia e teenei Piihopatanga hei Rei Keenana; he kaumaatua i aroha ki ngaa mahi a oona tuupuna.

Dr. Metekingi was proud of his ancestry, language and culture. He was one of the very few remaining gentleman elders of his tribe who never deserted his dialect.

It was appropriate that when he was taken from his whare puni, Te Paku-o-te-rangi, Putikiwharanui, Whanganui, that the last Maori rite performed was the recitation of his genealogies tracing from the major canoes and the Whanganui lament for the dead, “Kaaore te aroha hurihuri noa”, which were accompanied to the beating of the poi performed by the people of the Maungarongo marae, Ohakune, and some of the local kuia.

Many hundreds of people came to pay their respects to one of Whanganui’s greatest men.

Haere raa, e Rangi, ki runga i o waka i a Aotea Utanga Nui raaua ko Kurahaupoo Ika-Unahi Nui. Haere kite maatotorutanga o te tangata.