John Hippolite
(1929 - 1993)
In the late 1960s and early 1970s John Hippolite became increasingly involved in Māori issues. He was a member of the Māori Organisation on Human Rights (MOOHR), and in 1972 was part of a group in Nelson concerned about the high incidence of Māori crime. Another of Johns concerns was conservation. In January 1973 he was appointed to the Marlborough Sounds Maritime Park Board. This interest was later recognised by his appointment to the Māori Heritage Committee of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 1991. Becoming involved in two claims to the Waitangi Tribunal: the Takaporewa Claim (Stephens Island) lodged in 1989 and the Indigenous Flora and Fauna Claim, lodged in 1991. As John would say “I represent a large body of Māori opinion”.
The claimants vision and aspiration seeks to restore “te tino rangatiratanga o te Iwi Māori in respect of flora and fauna and all of our taonga.” Taonga being those things and values which we treasure, material, non-material, tangible and intangible.