Hone Harawira

Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira is a New Zealand Māori activist and former parliamentarian.

Harawira was born to John Puriri Harawira and Titewhai Harawira in Whangārei on 6 January 1955.

He was raised in West Auckland and attended St Stephen's School, a boarding school for Māori boys, and the University of Auckland.

He credits people like Muhammad Ali, Syd Jackson, Nelson Mandela, Māori Marsden, his mother and his wife for teaching him "the need for strength, commitment, wisdom and vision".

His mother descends from the Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Wai and Ngāti Hine tribes, his father from Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua, and he is part Pākehā.

He married Hilda Halkyard from the Ngāti Haua hapū (subtribe) of Te Rarawa.

His mother is a prominent Māori activist.

Harawira played a role in Treaty of Waitangi issues, Māori language revitalisation, land occupations, and Māori broadcasting.

In 1979 Harawira was part of He Taua, which confronted drunk University of Auckland engineering students who performed a parody of the "Ka Mate" haka with obscenities painted on their bodies.

He Taua responded to the cultural insult, which resulted in the engineering students sustaining several broken bones.

He was a key participant in He Taua, the 1981 Springbok tour protests, and the 2004 foreshore and seabed hīkoi, the last of which led to him entering parliament.

He was elected to parliament as the member for the Māori electorate of Te Tai Tokerau in 2005 as the Māori Party candidate.

Harawira stood in the 2005 general election as the Māori Party candidate for the seat of Te Tai Tokerau, and was elected to parliament.

As a member of parliament, he has continued to support community activism, while also advancing legislative change.

Harawira has remained outspoken, breaking protocol to open parliament in Māori; saying the former Australian Prime Minister "John Howard is a racist bastard" for his intervention into aboriginal affairs; being fined for leaving a planned parliamentary overseas tour to make headlines over aboriginal rights; and for continually challenging the government's Māori MPs for "not defending Māori rights".

In 2009 when he and his wife revisited the School of Engineering Harawira said "When people refuse to do what's right, at the end of the day you step in, do what you've got to do."

A student at Waikato University complained about Harawira in April 2009 after an incident where Harawira swore in response to a question referring to Māori as a "minority group".

He claimed that the political science student, Steve Baron, was a racist who "lumped Māori in with other minorities like homosexuals and Asians.....He tried it on and he got his comeuppance."

Harawira writes a regular column in the Kaitaia-based newspaper The Northland Age, entitled Ae Marika.

In the edition dated 29 October 2009, during the time he was on a parliamentary trip in Europe, he wrote:

"...we've been scrapping and squabbling and brawling and bawling about this, that and the other thing for so long that all of the original Waitangi Tribunal claimants are now long dead."

"...the European Union...27 distinct languages and hundreds of different dialects...political diversity...everyone doing their best to talk with one another, and work together!"

"So hangin' with these folks has been a great learning experience."

"...I for one learned heaps."

Following his return from Europe, in November 2009, Hawawira was asked to repay some travel costs after skipping a taxpayer-funded conference in Brussels to go sightseeing in Paris.

"How many times in my lifetime am I going to get to Europe? So I thought, 'F*** it, I'm off. I'm off to Paris'," he said.

In a subsequent email exchange with Buddy Mikaere (a former director of the Waitangi Tribunal), who had criticised Harawira's actions, Harawira responded, stating "Gee Buddy, do you believe that white man bullshit too do you? White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit.... And, quite frankly, I don't give a shit what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?".

Harawira's email was seen as racist and heavily criticised by the media, other members of parliament, and members of the public.

After a lengthy discussion process, the Māori Party decided that he would not face punishment.

On Radio Waatea he apologised for the wording of his email but not for the sentiment of it.

He also said in an apology "My words were true."

Harawira later said that Labour Party leader Phil Goff was a "bastard" and "should be lined up against a wall and shot" for passing the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

On 31 July 2010 Harawira told The New Zealand Herald he "wouldn't feel comfortable" if one of his children came home with a Pākehā partner, but he asked whether "all Pākehās would be happy with their daughters coming home with a Māori boy? The answer is they wouldn't."

He was asked, since some of his whānau have dated Pacific Islanders and he didn't have an issue with it, "does that make him prejudiced?"

He said "Probably, but how many people don't have prejudices?"

In 2011, following a rift with party colleagues, Harawira resigned from the Māori Party.

He subsequently announced the formation of the Mana Party, and then resigned from parliament to trigger the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, which he won as leader of the new party.

Mana, now the Mana Movement, campaigned alongside the Internet Party in the 2014 general election, but failed to return Harawira or the party to parliament.

He also stood unsuccessfully in 2017.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harawira led community efforts to roadblock parts of the Far North District in 2020 and 2021.