Tipi Tainui Rōpiha was the first Māori person to become Secretary of Māori Affairs (the administrative head of the Department of Māori Affairs), a role he held from 1948 to 1957.
In the 1952 Queen’s Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Imperial Service Order, and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1972 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Tipi Tainui Rōpiha was a notable surveyor and public servant of Ngāi Toroiwaho of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne. Tipi was a veteran of World War One and joined the New Zealand Field Artillery on the August 1916. He served in France until he was wounded in the abdomen in October 1918 and invalided out.
After returning he attended lectures at Canterbury College and passed the surveyors’ examination in 1920. While studying, he was accepted for a position in the Department of Lands and Survey and in October 1919. This would help lead Tipi to a new opportunity in 1935 when the under-secretary of the Native Department asked for a surveyor to work on the Auckland land consolidation schemes. Rōpiha was nominated because of his knowledge of the Māori world.
Tipi would have his most significant chance to advance Māori land ownership when on the 1st of October 1948, he became under-secretary for Māori Affairs, becoming first Māori to head the department.
Tipi Tainui Rōpiha
Died 1978
Image: Downie, T M, active 1940s-1950s. Tipi Tainui Ropiha and his secretary – Photograph taken by T M Downie. Tourist and Publicity. Ref: PAColl-3063-1-06. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22348673
