A new biography about Dr Pouroto Ngaropo has been released, documenting his life, his connection to Māori leadership and the knowledge he hopes to pass on to future generations.

Rejuvenating Traditional Maori Leadership, written by Bradford Haami, came about after Ngaropo’s family decided about five years ago that his knowledge and experiences should be recorded.

Ngaropo said his family wanted his experiences with traditional Māori leadership documented so future generations could refer to them.

For him, the biography is more than a record of his life.

It is a way to bring together the knowledge and experiences he has gathered on his journey and leave something behind for the generations that follow.

The book looks at his life as a Māori cultural leader, historian, educator and governance expert, including his more than 38 years on governance boards.

For Ngaropo, one of the main ideas running through the book is mana and how traditional Māori leadership can be applied to everyday life.

He said his understanding of mana was not simply something to be taught or studied, but something that could be lived.

“It becomes more of a reality and a living, breathing culture rather than one that’s taught and analysed,” he said.

The book covers his work across education, health, local government, broadcasting, international travel, iwi and hapū affairs, and his involvement in communities throughout Aotearoa.

Ngaropo said he had spent more than three decades working to promote te ao Māori and build stronger relationships between Māori and public institutions.

He said leadership was also about empowering other people and creating space for different cultures and communities.

A large part of the biography is focused on Ngaropo’s journey, including his search for identity and becoming Ngāti Awa.

It also covers the revival of his subtribe, Te Tawera, which he said had been nearly extinguished following the confiscation of land in 1866.

Ngaropo said he helped bring his hapū back and was involved in building a new marae at Manawahe.

The biography also tells stories about the preservation of taonga, including an heirloom hei tiki, which Ngaropo said he recovered from a graveyard after receiving a spiritual message to return it to where it belonged.

His journey began at a young age, including while he was at Hato Pētera, St Peter’s Māori Boys’ School in Auckland.

Ngaropo said several people had helped guide him throughout his life, including his great-grandfather, his grandmothers, family members, ethnologist and historian David Simmons, Sir Toby Curtis, Dame Whina Cooper, and Sir Hirini Mead.

He became involved in oratory competitions and was a haka leader from a young age.

He later contributed to the development of kapa haka and Māori cultural performing arts in the region for more than 28 years and was a national kapa haka judge for Te Matatini for more than 20 years.

The book also looks at what Ngaropo describes as “colliding worlds”.

He said sometimes Māori and European worlds could collide, while at other times they could work together, in parallel or separately.

He said understanding how to move between different contexts was important.

The biography is dedicated to Ngaropo’s father, brother, best friend and his late wife, Jody Hiroti, who died three years ago. His mother and daughters are also acknowledged, with Ngaropo describing his daughters as his backbone.

Haami, who wrote the biography, is from the area and Ngaropo said the book allowed his experiences to be put together into a story about living traditional Māori leadership in the modern world.

The book has already had two launches.

The first was at Auckland University of Technology, where Ngaropo received his doctorate. The second was in Whakatāne last Thursday.

More than 400 people attended the Whakatāne launch, which Ngaropo described as an “excellent day”.

The book is now available at Paper Plus Whakatāne for $59 and online, with plans for the book to be distributed around New Zealand.

Ngaropo said he had been asked to travel to different parts of the country to give presentations about the book.

Book giveaway

■ The Beacon is giving away a signed copy of Pouroto Ngaropo’s biography, Rejuvenating Traditional Māori Leadership. To enter, email: [email protected] with Pouroto Ngaropo in the subject line. Entries close at noon on Tuesday, October 6