Te Kapunga Matemoana "Koro" Dewes (7 April 1930 – 17 August 2010) was a kaumātua of the Ngāti Porou iwi of New Zealand. He was a pioneer of Māori education and an advocate for the Māori language.

Dewes attended Horoera Native Primary School and won a scholarship to Wesley College, where he became dux and head prefect. He went to Ardmore Teachers' College (now part of the University of Auckland) in 1949 and taught at Tikitiki District High School and St. Stephen's Anglican Māori boarding school. From 1962 to 1966, he lectured in the University Extension Department (adult education) of the University of Auckland, and then was appointed as a lecturer in Māori language at the Victoria University of Wellington.[1] At Wellington, he helped to extend courses to allow students to complete a degree major in Māori language. He wrote a master's thesis on the work of composer Henare Waitoa, which was submitted in Māori in 1972. The title of the master's thesis was Ngā waiata haka a Hēnare Waitoa o Ngāti Porou (modern dance-poetry by Hēnare Waitoa of Ngāti Porou).[2][3] He was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature (DLitt) by Victoria in 2002.[4]

Dewes returned to the East Cape area in 1976, where in 1987 he helped form Te Runanga o Ngati Porou, an organisation which has championed and facilitated a strategic vision for the Ngāti Porou.[5][6]

Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples said Dewes "was a partisan rather than a diplomat" who "has been an inspiration for language activists from every iwi, and for indigenous peoples around the world."[7]

References

  1. ↑ "People and Places". Te Ao Hou (54): 28. March 1966.
  2. ↑ Dewes, Koro (1972). Ngā waiata haka a Hēnare Waitoa o Ngāti Porou (modern dance-poetry by Hēnare Waitoa of Ngāti Porou) (Masters thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/3418.
  3. ↑ Dewes, Kapunga (1974). Māori literature : ngā waiata haka a Hēnare Waitoa o Ngāti Porou (Masters thesis). Massey Research Online, Massey University. hdl:10179/14313.
  4. ↑ "Honorary graduates and Hunter fellowships". Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Te Runanga". Te Runanga o Ngati Porou. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  6. ↑ "History of Te Runanga o Ngati Porou". Te Runanga o Ngati Porou. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  7. ↑ Ihaka, James (19 August 2010). "Maori language pioneer dies at 80". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
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