Speech
Michael King Eulogy
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
There are some bereavements that resonate with those well beyond the family concerned. Today, we are here to mourn such a loss.
Like many other New Zealanders, I received the news of the deaths of Michael King and Maria Jungowska on the morning of the last day in March. It happened that I was about to begin the ceremony that acknowledges recipients of the 2004 New Year honours. Among those gathered were many great New Zealanders whose achievements and contributions have inspired and helped many.
As I entered the room where the ceremony takes place, there was a palpable feeling of joy and excitement. I thought of Michael King and how he and his family must have felt back in 1988 when he received an OBE for services to literature. Like those gathered that morning just two weeks ago, he would have been looking forward to a time of celebration, with his family and friends there to share his pride and delight.
The loss of Dr King and his wife was so untimely, but of such importance to all of us that even at this time of celebration, I felt it appropriate to share it with the honours recipients. And as I did, a great sigh, almost a groan filled the room. This was indeed a moment of shared shock and mourning. A moment when together we began to assess this new New Zealand, one from which one of the very best, one of our greatest sons, had gone.
I had seen Michael only two months earlier, at the memorial service for Janet Frame. He shone with vitality and exuberance, speaking to me of how precious each day now was to him. With this vivid picture of him in my mind, news of his tragic and totally unexpected death was an even greater shock.
Michael King had a gift. He helped interpret our history in a way that made sense to all of us, both European and Maori. His books were accessible in ways that many histories are not, and as if to underline that, his passing coincided with the phenomenal success of his most recent publication, the Penguin History of New Zealand. For that alone he will be remembered, for rarely does a book about the history of a people reach the bestseller lists. He, his wife, their friends and families must have been so proud of that achievement. But the book is more than popular and eminently readable. It points us to vital clues about our nation, and helps explain much at a time when we are examining ourselves more intensely as a nation than we have for some time.
Now Michael is no longer here to help us in this way. But his work remains. His writing has already helped us to begin defining ourselves as New Zealanders. It could yet transform the way we view ourselves and how we relate to one another.
While we remember Michael King the New Zealander, let us not forget the heartbreaking loss of Michael King and Maria Jungowska to their families and friends. Our very public mourning is great, but theirs is lifelong, and intensely personal.
Michael, you will be missed in ways we cannot presently imagine.
No reira e te Taonga, whai muri koe i ou matua tipuna I te Ara Whanui a Tane
ki te Putahitanga o Rehua.
[Therefore Treasured One, follow your elders and ancestors along the Broad Path of Tane to the Meeting Place of Rehua.]