Leading from the front issuu

chapter eight
BEHIND THE FAÇADE
– DRIVEN TO ANSWER NEEDS
AND A BICULTURAL AWAKENING
Pat’s inherent sense of justice is legendary, as was
his big heart for a small kid, and keen perception
to see early in life that there were, give or take,
two sides to Napier. In simplistic terms, there were the
Haves and the Have nots. There were elegant arches,
genteel ways and choices for some, but not for all. As an
idealist through and through, Pat knew that this separation
wasn’t good for communities and his driving motivation
for decades has been to try and right that balance,
in his own unique style.
To his very core he is driven to help others, especially
those marginalised through circumstances out of their
control, namely colonisation and urbanisation. In the 50
years between the 1930s and the 1980s, the Māori population
transitioned from 83% rural-based to 83% urban,
one of the fastest rates of urbanisation in the world. Norman
Kirk said of the Tangata Whenua coming into the
cities that it was, “the greatest migration since the canoes”
and with that came massive upheaval.
Pat first became involved in community work in the
early 50s, when he joined the Friendly Neighbours, a
group run by Robin and Lou McMurray. Pat liked that
they offered practical assistance, through delivering
food and clothing parcels. He’d witnessed the seeds
of poverty take hold in Milton Road; he saw when kids
don’t have resources at home, when money is tight and
“Pat Magill gives
new meaning to
the term ‘social
butterfly’. He
comes from
a successful
business family
and had been cocooned in the casual
racist social chrysalis of the rednecked
burghers of Napier. He was the
chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Rugby
Union, a role then akin to the Grand
Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in another
land. Whether Pat had a spiritual
epiphany or simply decided to enact
his pragmatic Christian beliefs I do
not know but in the 1970s Pat Magill
underwent a radical transformation,
a metamorphosis, and emerged as
a Treaty-conscious social-justice
activist. He was reborn as a socialist
butterfly.” By Denis O’Reilly.
(See full korero on page 73.)
Opposite page: Photo Sandy Millar; Above, top; Napier’s iconic statue, Phoenix rising up from the ashes; below; Napier’s heroic
friendly outlaw; Pat’s fundraising style was likely inspired by Robin Hood.
Behind the façade 71