Sir Ian Hugh Kāwharu ONZ was an academic and paramount chief of the Ngāti Whātua Māori tribe in New Zealand.
Education
Born in Ashburton, New Zealand in 1927, Kāwharu attended Auckland Grammar School. He gained a Bachelor of Science in geology and physics from the University of Auckland, an Master of Arts in anthropology from Cambridge University and an Master of Letters and Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University.
Career
In 1970 he became the foundation professor of social anthropology and Māori Studies at Massey University. Between 1985 and 1993 he was professor of Māori Studies and head of the Department of Anthropology at The University of Auckland, where he directed the building of the university"s marae and was made an emeritus professor after he retired. He was chair of the Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei Māori Trust Board from 1978 to 2006.
He served on the Royal Commission of the Courts (1976–1978), the New Zealand Māori Council, the Board of Māori Affairs (1987–1990) and the Waitangi Tribunal (1986–1996).
He was a New Zealand delegate to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and a consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Economic and Social Council (of the UN)) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (Food and Agriculture Organization). He was also President of the Polynesian Society.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1994. He was patron of the Pitt Rivers Museum and an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
Kāwharu died in Auckland in 2006.