A Tumutoa of our Cook Islands broadcasting and language education community was farewelled in Otara on Thursday night.
Community leaders, family, friends and colleagues gathered at the SDA Church to pay their respects to this kind-hearted giant of the Cook Islands community who was taken so suddenly earlier in the week, aged just 61.
As a fellow media industry worker, Cook Islander and Ruatonga village ‘wantok’, Tauraki’s passing came as a huge shock to me and no doubt to his loved ones and the many who knew him well.
The steady stream of visitors to his wake through the week, and the many tributes on social media, a testament to his standing and the strength and mana of his work in the community.
Tauraki was the producer of Cook Islands programming at the Pacific Media Network, but his impact was so much more than the sum of its parts.
Responsible for a small team of professionals who kept the Cook Islands Maori language alive on the airwaves across Aotearoa and beyond, he was producer, content creator, mentor and champion of the language.
At the same time he had played a lead role in passing his knowledge to young people especially during his time with the Cook Islands Development Agency New Zealand (CIDANZ) where he helped establish initiatives like the ‘Are Ta’unga language and cultural expert advisory group and the Cook Islands Language Champion programme.
Tauraki came into his own during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, where he played a critical role in translating and delivering essential health information to Cook Islands communities.
Our company was responsible for creating the television messages during that time and Tauraki proved just how professional and effective a communicator he was. I also enjoyed just meeting up with him in the hurley burly of the covid madness where we could just have a catchup.
My own connection with Tauraki goes back to our village days in Ruatonga, where he, his siblings and his parents – Ngatoko and Mama Ra – took an active part in the life and activities of the ‘tapere’.
Tauraki was older than me, I was closer in age to his younger brother Pa. I remember them as being hard workers, extremely proficient on the land and always working in the ‘pa’i taro’. At the same time they were excellent fishermen and – like many youngsters in the village – active at the Avatiu Rugby club.
Tauraki’s leadership and sporting prowess shone through the grades at the club, which led to a lifelong love of the game where he contributed not just as player but also in administration and coaching although he would lament to me in later years that he wished he’d taken up a different sport, his knees would have thanked him for it.
My last encounter with him took place in Rarotonga just before Christmas, he’d been in Rarotonga for a few weeks and I’d arrived with my wife and daughter to catch up at the Punanga Nui market with my Tongan colleague John Pulu.
He loved being in the islands and was always looking at ways he could remain longer while running the show back in New Zealand. I told him that was my dream too.
He liked to take a dig at me, describing me as being part of the village’s ‘papa’a-speaking’ families who always seemed to get their own way at Sunday school ‘tatau’ practice.
It was a running joke between us and I always laughed it off but, just politely, he was right. I wish I’d taken more time to be more proficient in our reo and, in his own way, he will always be there to remind me.
That would be my endearing memory of Tauraki, of a village boy from Ruatonga who made good.
