Ranginui Joseph Isaac Walker DCNZM (1 March 1932 – 29 February 2016) was a New Zealand academic, author, and activist of Māori and Lebanese descent.
[1] Walker wrote about Māori land rights and cultural identity in his books and columns for the weekly New Zealand Listener and the monthly Metro magazine throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
In his own history of Whakatōhea (2007) Walker explained that at this time Māori language and culture were unfashionable, and that his generation was expected to assimilate.
[8] In the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours, Walker was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori.
[2] Former Prime Minister Helen Clark tweeted "Greatly saddened by news of death of Ranginui Walker, one of New Zealand's finest people; eminent academic & author.