Source: Radio New Zealand
Family members and friends carried the casket of former Manukau City Mayor Sir Barry, with Kapa Haka from Otahuhu college students – Sir Barry’s old school. Lucy Xia/RNZ
Described as a visionary leader and a builder of belonging – former Manukau City Mayor Sir Barry Curtis was celebrated at his funeral service in Manukau on Friday.
Sir Barry died last week, aged 87.
He had a career of nearly 40 years in local-goverment, and was one of the longest serving mayors in New Zealand.
He led Manukau City from 1983 to 2007 at a time when the city was expanding rapidly, and has been remembered in eulogies by colleagues and politicians as a mayor with a love for community, equity and inclusion.
Hundreds gathered at the Dew Drop Events Centre for the service, including family, former and current mayors, councillors and members of parliament.
Sir Barry Curtis’s casket was carried into the venue that he played a key role in envisioning for Manukau, with Kapa Haka by students from Otahuhu College – his old high school.
Hundreds attended the funeral service of former Manukau City Mayor Sir Barry Curtis at Manukau’s Dew Drop Events Centre on Friday. Lucy Xia/RNZ
Colin Dale, former chief executive of Manukau City Council who worked alongside Sir Barry for two decades, said he was the best leader.
“He was an icon, a legend, I think he was the best mayor,” he said.
Dale said Sir Barry’s legacy in Manukau reflects not only in the many infrastructure projects he pushed for – including the Manukau Rail Link and the Te Irirangi Drive project – but also all the community and sporting groups he promoted, such as Enterprising Manukau, City Manukau Education Trust, Counties Manukau Sports Trust, the Māori Wardens in Ōtara, and other Pasifika groups across the city.
He also “hammered forever” for the courthouse in Manukau, and the Manukau police station, which both became a reality, said Dale.
Dale praised Sir Barry’s relationships with Iwi and Hapū and his enduring bonds with Waikato-Tainui.
He said during Auckland’s 1994 drought, it was Sir Barry who struck the long-term agreement with Tainui for the city to access water from the Waikato River.
Former Manukau City Council Mayor Sir Barry Curtis. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
Former MP Aupito Su’a William Sio says for many Pasifika and Māori communities, Sir Barry’s leadership was special, carrying warmth and affection.
“He made us feel welcome and valued, it was powerful to see a palangi of his stature, mingling at our gatherings, shaking our hands, speaking our language, even when he stumbled in pronunciation,” he said.
Aupito said he travelled with Sir Barry to Samoa in 1993, where Sir Barry was bestowed the Matai title of Seiuli at the request of the Samoan diaspora in Ōtara, in recognition of his contribution to the community here.
Sir Barry led by example to show palangi leaders that inclusion was not a matter of negotiation, but an obligation, said Aupito.
Aupito described Sir Barry as a “builder of belonging”.
“He made Manukau not just a city, but a family, his legacy lives on not in the echoes of speeches, but in every smiling face at the part, in every child learning in the library, in every family who swims in water made free for all,” he said.
For Anne Candy, who worked alongside Sir Barry as his deputy mayor for nine years, Sir Barry’s leadership was one that championed equity and diversity.
“Manukau, New Zealand’s most progressive city was also Manukau – the face of the future. This was Sir Barry’s command that whatever was happening in Manukau would eventually be happening in the whole of Aoteaora.
“Manukau was the face of the future, it was the face of Pākehā, it was the face of Māori, it was the face of Asians, it was the face of Middle Easterns, it was the face of every country in the world who found Manukau was their home,” she said.
Candy said Sir Barry had a vision of infrastructure that would benefit the whole community.
His passion to have mana whenua as a status of uncompromising respect was a foundation upon which many treaty activities took place in Manukau City, she said.
Former Waitākere City Mayor Sir Bob Harvey said Sir Barry has a legacy second to none in New Zealand.
“Sir Barry was a giant in local politics and King of Manukau of course, and the success of the South was really his child, he adored the South,” he said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand