Te Kapunga Matemoana "Koro" Dewes (7 April 1930 – 17 August 2010) was a

kaumātua A kaumātua is a respected tribal elder of either sex in a Māori community who has been involved with their whānau for a number of years. They are appointed by their people who believe the chosen elders have the capacity to teach and guide both ...

of the

Ngāti Porou Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...

iwi of New Zealand. He was a pioneer of Māori education and an advocate for the

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

. 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 , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

) 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

, and then was appointed as a lecturer in Māori language at the

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

. 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)''. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature (DLitt) by Victoria in 2002. Dewes returned to the

East Cape East Cape is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. It is located at the northern end of the Gisborne District of New Zealand's North Island. It can also refer to the broader Gisborne cape. East Cape was originally named "C ...

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. Māori Affairs Minister

Pita Sharples Sir Pita Russell Sharples (born Peter Russell Sharples, 20 July 1941) is a New Zealand Māori academic and politician, who was a co-leader of the Māori Party from 2004 to 2013, and a minister outside Cabinet in the National Party-led governme ...

said Dewes "was a partisan rather than a diplomat" who "has been an inspiration for language activists from every

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

, and for

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

s around the world."

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewes, Koro 1930 births 2010 deaths New Zealand Māori academics People educated at Wesley College, Auckland Academic staff of the University of Auckland Academic staff of the Victoria University of Wellington University of Auckland alumni Māori language revivalists Ngāti Porou people