LEWIS WILLIAMS, PHD

Brian Dickson
Brian Dickson, Ngāi Te Rangi, and Ngāti Ranginui grew up on the Matapihi Peninsula, the
ancestral lands of Ngai Tukairangi during the 1950s and ‘60s. He received his education in the
Tauranga moana attending Matapihi School and then Mount Manganui College. Brian describes
his whakapapa links to the Faulkner whanau:
“In terms of my dad‟s Ngāi Te Rangi, side: John-lees Faulkner married Ruawahine who was of
Ngai Tukairangi descent. And on my mother‟s side her grandmother was Te Rautau Faulkner and
Te Rautau was the grand daughter of John-lees Faulkner. So that‟s where we have whakapapa
through to John-lees Faulkner and Ruawahine. The marae on my mum‟s side is Ngati Hangarau
(Ngāti Ranginui ) where the Smith family come from. Yes, so that‟s me. I belong to both of the
Tauranga Moana iw”.
His father spent some time as working as a laborer in Whakatāne. Generally he remembers the
employment opportunities being quite limited for Māori at that time with most working on the
farms and railways. Life was not particularly easy during those days. One of his regrets is not
being able to korero in te reo Māori in school and how eventually the language was lost for
many. He recalls that in the end his parents and grandparents had to learn English to be able to
communicate with them which: “was sad really”. He recalls:
“We were learning mainstream, it was a process I suppose where we became a part of
government policies to assimilate Māori into the European way of doing things aye. ……Even the
subjects they taught for example wasn‟t about Māori history it was all about captain Cook. So we
didn‟t know any better at the time. But when we grew up we found out about the education we
hadn‟t received in terms of our Māori heritage and our Māori language and our Māori history, it
left……those who endured it quite bitter”.
Today Mr Brian Dickson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ngāi Te Rangi, iwi office. He
oversees many of the iwi’s affairs on a day to day level and is a strong advocate for ensuring
Mauao’s full return to the Tauranga Moana iwi.
Growing up with Mauao: a way of life
These narratives of Mauao span some 80 years – from the time the Kuia and Koroua were
growing up in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s to present day experiences of Mauao and its
surrounds. In many senses, Mauao cannot be separated from the surrounding whenua and
18