Āpirana Ngata

Āpirana Ngata (born July 3, 1874, Kawaka, New Zealand—died July 14, 1950, Waiomatatini) was a political and cultural leader of the Māori community in New Zealand. He was a major force behind the improvement of government policy toward the Māori in the early 20th century.

Earning his law degree in 1897, Ngata became the first Māori graduate of a New Zealand university and worked briefly as a lawyer before becoming active in the nationalist Young Māori Party. In 1905 he began his 39-year term of office in Parliament, representing the eastern Māori constituency. He was knighted in 1927, and he served as minister of native affairs from 1928 to 1934.

In 1931 Ngata inaugurated his Māori land-development plan, which improved the quality of his people’s agriculture and expanded the amount of Māori land under cultivation. His efforts to improve educational opportunities for the Māori included the founding of the Māori Purposes Fund to finance school construction.

Deeply committed to the preservation of the Māori culture, Ngata helped to found the Māori Board of Ethnological Research and served as its chairman from 1928 to 1934. His contributions to Polynesian anthropology included a nine-year term as president of the Polynesian society and his Nga Moteatea (1929), largely a collection of songs and chants of the various Māori tribes.