'My superheroes': Polynesian Panther's son on carrying the kaupapa everywhere

Rāwiri Bhana (Ngāti Te Roro o Te Rangi, Ngāti Whakaue) says he's a self-proclaimed track pants and hoodies guy.

So, when Bhana was invited to the Institute of Directors two-day Leadership Confidence that kicked off last week, he was initially "surprised to get their phone calls".

Bhana, who is the son of Indian Polynesian Panther Nigel Bhana, is the co-chair (Tangata Whenua) Community Governance Aotearoa, plus he holds the role of chair for Te Komiti Nui o Ngāti Whakaue, IndigiShare and the Mokoia Island trust, as well as being a director with Mokopuna Consultancy and a senior Māori advisor to Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

"[At] Community Governance Aotearoa, we work entirely in the not-for-profit space," Bhana says.

"Whether that be on marae or hapū iwi trust, or with not-for-profits with our Rainbow communities, our women's refugees or all of those charities who work on the 'smell of an oily rag'."

The annual two-day IOD Leadership Conference is an event that attracts over 500 NZ directors and businesses where attendees engage in thought-provoking and inspiring discussions.

Bhana attended the event representing the Community of Governance Aotearoa as co-chair for Tangata Whenua.

Assuming the space was more business-orientated which differs to Bhana's mahi, he went in with a "preconception of the Institute of Directors as pinstripe suits".

"The Institute of Directors generally are those New Zealand big stock exchange companies, like Spark, Fletchers, Fonterra and are in the for-profit sector."

However, Bhana found it to be a two-way street of learning, finding out there's more to the members involved than just making money.

"I think they really did appreciate that I didn't sugarcoat things. I was as honest as I could be about that kaupapa.

"[It was] quite a privileged and mind-blowing [experience]. It was nice to be able to connect them with somebody who works in the space where our profit is our people."

Bhana says the philosophy behind Mokopuna Decisions is within the name, as its foundational idea is of closing one's eyes and asking if their grandparents would approve of what they are about to do before they do it.

He says this connected with the members at the event as they were all parents with some being grandparents.

"When you become a grandparent or parent your life stops being about you. The decisions you make are about your children, about your tamariki, about your grandchildren, about your mokopuna.

"It was getting across that it's not foreign to members sitting on these big boards.

"In the end, if we get down to our soul, our wairua, we all want a better life for our mokopuna."

Real-life superheroes: The impact of the Polynesian Panther's legacy

Bhana says despite growing up with a love of comic books heroes, he didn't realise his own father Nigel and his Polynesian Panther mates were in fact real-life superheroes.

"You have your superheroes that have you go 'man. I love Superman' or 'I love Spider-Man'.

"But growing up and seeing Uncle Tigilau [Ness], Uncle Will [Ilolahia], Aunty Ama [Ness], Uncle John [Fa'amoana John Luafutu] down here in Christchurch, Scribe's dad, they were they were just my uncles and aunties."

Bhana says he did not comprehend the gravity of their efforts until he had gotten older and started to look back.

"My Dad as an 18 year old Father. Gave everything for his Whānau and now as a near 50 year old, I am happy that I can repay a wee part of all the love and sacrifices he made for our Whānau. My Dad making #MokopunaDecisions from Day One". Photo/Facebook/Rāwiri Bhana

He says a revelation about their circumstances was during the screening of TVNZ's The Panthers series, based on the revolutionary group, which included a depiction of Nigel Bhana.

"The thing my father laughed the most about the show was he said, 'oh, they couldn't get actors my age.'

"My dad was 14 when he was doing that stuff. They were kids."

He says while Will Illohia was at university, a lot of the other Panthers were in a younger demographic, but were still at the forefront of protests or running the after-school centres and doing the prison visits.

"They'd go to the prison and go 'we want to talk to any of our Pasifika brothers and sisters' because they realised they had come to Aotearoa to have a better life and had been arrested.

"They knew nobody, they had left their villages in Sāmoa, Tokelau and Tonga and were lost in prison and had nobody.

"I know what I was doing at 14 [but] my father was out there fighting injustice, inequity, inequality.

'My father didn't go': The contested 2021 Dawn Raid apology

Bhana also revealed that despite his father being invited to the apology in 2021, he declined because he believed it was being directed at the wrong people.

Then-PM Jacinda Ardern at 2021 Dawn Raid apology. Photo/RNZ/Marika Khabazi

"This is my father's whakaaro (thoughts), not everybody in the Panthers, [as] my father didn't go because he said 'they're apologising to the wrong people'.

"'The Prime Minister needs to jump on a plane and go Sāmoa, Tonga, and go apologise to those who were deported'.

"[We carry the] mamae (pain) as indigenous Pasifika-Māori communities, and we hold that mamae forever."

Rāwiri says he looks at his father and his bravery in awe and that the stature of a person is not represented solely by physical traits.

"I just look at my dad now as a superhero. All my uncles are six foot plus and my Tokelau uncles were men of stature.

"They are brothers and sisters that embraced this small little Indian man from Albany Road and Ponsonby as one of their own.

"My dad was on the front line with them fighting. I do still love Superman and Spider-Man but I look at those Panthers as our superheroes.

"Those are the ones our kids should be learning about in school."