The Iwi Education Authority is mourning the loss of life-long educator and leader, Te Iria Marama Whiu.
Authority spokesperson Pem Bird said Iria Whiu was hugely influential in terms of best practice in the delivery of Māori education.
The kuia of Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāi Te Ahi died on Saturday in Ruatoki, while attending an Education Institute hui where she was being recognised for her lifetime contribution to the sector.
Pem Bird says Iria Whiu was a hugely influential educator. Photo: RNZ
Mr Bird said her teachings and pedagogy were well-worth emulating.
"She strove for the best quality outcomes, nothing less."
Mr Bird said it was important that Te Iria Whiu was not just remembered, but others rose to the challenge of continuing her work.
"The legacy that's well worth emulating, not just remembering but taking up the challenge and rising to the challenge and taking it the next level up. Iria would expect that," he said.
"She was the first Māori president of the NZEI union and she was responsible for addressing some of the disparities and inequalities in terms of work conditions for teachers during her time. She was a practitioner herself in relation to the deliver of Māori education in her own school and she was instrumental in establishing Te Maru O Ngā Kura-ā-Iwi o Aotearoa, [which] she was deputy-chairman of at the time of her death.
Mr Bird said she died too soon.
"We would have liked her to live longer, she was a grandmother, she had her own whānau and she deserved some time to be with her own mokpuna, to be a kuia for them and continue to play a role on the marae.
"I will miss her, she was a personal friend, I've known her since about 1980 and I will miss her dearly."
She was recognised as Member of the New Zealand Merit for her services to education and Maori In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours.
Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said she dedicated over 40 years to the profession as a classroom teacher and earned the distinctive honour of being elected as the first Maori president of the New Zealand Educational Institute in 1995.
"While we lament our loss, and express our deepest sympathy for her children and mokopuna, we must all treasure and uphold the legacy she leaves behind," he said.
Te Iria Whiu will lie in state at Hairini Marae in Tauranga.
