John Rangihau

Who was John Rangihau?

John Te Rangianiwaniwa Rangihau BEM was a New Zealand academic and Māori leader of the Tuhoe iwi. He was also called Te Nika and Te Rangihau.

Rangihau fought with the 28th New Zealand Battalion in World War II. He worked as a Māori welfare officer for the Department of Maori Affairs and became a recognised leader of the Tuhoe people. From 1957 to 1959, Rangihau completed a diploma in social science at Victoria University.

In 1973, Rangihau was working for the University of Waikato's Centre for Maori Studies and Research looking for ways to preserve the Māori language. He was involved in setting up Māori-language pre-school groups in 1974, but they lasted less than a year. In 1975 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Māori. Rangihau became involved in the ministerial committee to prevent the decline in the number of Māori language speakers in New Zealand, and the scheme came to fruition with the kohanga reo scheme of Māori-language kindergartens in 1982.

After 1982, Rangihau became an advisor to the Maori Affairs Department.