As Labour\u2019s most senior M\u0101ori MP bows out of parliament, The Spinoff retraces the life and legacy of former minister Peeni Henare.<\/p>\n
After 12 years as a member of parliament \u2013 half of which he spent as a minister \u2013 Peeni Henare is hitting the road. Today marks the final day in parliament for the man whose life was never destined to be ordinary. Before he was even born, Henare\u2019s whakapapa set him on the path to a life of service and leadership.<\/p>\n
Erima Henare, Peeni\u2019s father, was a well-respected public servant and Ng\u0101ti Hine leader whose own father was M\u0101ori Battalion commander and National candidate James Henare. Sir James stood unsuccessfully in the Northern M\u0101ori seat five times between 1946 and 1963, and it was in the 1963 byelection that he lost by just 412 votes to his nephew, Labour\u2019s Matiu Rata. Peeni honoured his grandfather\u2019s legacy in his maiden speech as such: It \u201cwas the closest that the National Party ever came to winning a M\u0101ori seat, and long may that tradition continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
And before James there was his father, Taurekareka, who held the Northern M\u0101ori seat with the Reform Party from 1914 until 1936, and remained in parliament from 1936-1938 after the party merged with the United Party to form National. Taurekareka was also known as Tau; not to be confused with former NZ First minister and National MP Tau Henare, who is Peeni\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n
Peeni Henare speaking to media in 2020. (Photo: Hagen Hopkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
For Peeni, coming from a lineage of great M\u0101ori leaders meant a childhood spent hui hopping with his father and twin brother, Tatai. As a toddler, Peeni attended a k\u014dhanga reo run by his grandmothers in \u014cr\u0101kei, the same place where he watched his mother, Te Hemoata Henare, learn how to weave. She later became a renowned master weaver, and Peeni became one of the first MPs of the k\u014dhanga reo generation.<\/p>\n
Even after the Henare wh\u0101nau moved to Los Angeles in 1984, when Erima was made consul-general, the family home remained rooted in te ao M\u0101ori and they only spoke te reo there. Peeni was thrown into American culture through his schooling in Brentwood, though, and his early LA roots are why he is \u201csuch a tragic Lakers fan\u201d.<\/p>\n
After the wh\u0101nau returned to Aotearoa later in the decade, Erima became the first chief executive of the newly established M\u0101ori Language Commission. In 1989, James Henare died, and Peeni recalls as a nine-year-old watching \u201cthousands and thousands descend on \u014ctiria and Motatau marae\u201d to honour his grandfather. His legacy was a \u201creally tough shadow\u201d in Henare\u2019s early life \u2013 \u201cit didn\u2019t help that your teachers were like, you should know better, your grandfather [is] Sir James Henare\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peeni inherited the public service streak, joining the Ministry of Social Development in 2001 and staying there until he ran for parliament in 2014.\u00a0 Between 2008 and 2011, he worked as a commentator for M\u0101ori Television, providing te reo M\u0101ori commentary for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He also served as the chairman of Ruapekapeka P\u0101 Trust and Ng\u0101ti Hine Forestry Trust by the time he put his hand up to run for T\u0101maki Makaurau 2014.<\/p>\n
Peeni gives a victory speech after winning T\u0101maki Makaurau in 2014. (Image: Whakaata M\u0101ori)<\/p>\n
Peeni Henare had previously considered a political career up north, but T\u0101maki Makaurau was his true home. The seat\u2019s incumbent, then-M\u0101ori Affairs minister Pita Sharples, had stepped down as co-leader of the M\u0101ori Party a year earlier amid conflict over his leadership and it was time for new M\u0101ori leaders to enter parliament, he thought. The M\u0101ori Party had tried to poach Henare in the past, but advice from his father to listen to his heart took him to Labour. Some wh\u0101nau members who stayed true to the family\u2019s National roots \u201cchoked on their tea\u201d upon hearing the news.<\/p>\n
Henare\u2019s race against M\u0101ori Party candidate Rangi McLean was tight, with the two polling neck-and-neck in the lead-up to the September election. It ended up a monumentally bad year for Labour, which crashed to its worst defeat since 1922, but a great one for Henare, who won T\u0101maki Makaurau back for Labour after three terms of Sharples (Labour\u2019s John Tamihere held the seat for a single term after it was created in 2002).<\/p>\n
\u2018I had fewer knives in my back\u2019<\/p>\n
Peeni Henare was sworn into parliament that October, but he missed the ceremony to see his father, who had recently suffered a heart attack, in hospital. When Henare delivered his maiden speech in the House a week later, he looked up to see his father had discharged himself from the hospital to watch the moment from parliament\u2019s public gallery.<\/p>\n
Peeni delivering his maiden speech in 2014.<\/p>\n