Tirikātene, Sir Euera Tīhema Te Āika (1895-1967), a Māori politician, held Cabinet rank in the New Zealand government from 1957 to 1960. He was minister of forests and associate to the minister of Māori affairs.
Edward James Te Aika Tregerthen was born on Jan. 5, 1895, in Kaiapoi, on the South Island of New Zealand. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, he changed his name to the Māori name Eruera Tirikātene and enlisted in a Māori battalion. He was elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1932. For more than 20 years, he was president of the party’s Māori advisory council. He was knighted in 1960. He died on Jan. 11, 1967, in Kaiapoi. His daughter Whetū Tirikātene-Sullivan succeeded him as a member of Parliament for the Southern Māori.
