Wira Gardiner
New Zealand public servant
Sir Harawira Tiri Gardiner (4 September 1943 – 17 March 2022) was a New Zealand soldier, public servant, and writer. He was Māori, of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pikiao, Whakatōhea, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent.
Early life and personal
Gardiner was born on 4 September 1943 in Whakatāne. He was brought up under whāngai, the Māori custom of open inner family adoption. He received his secondary education in Whakatane and his tertiary education at the University of Canterbury (BA) and at King's College London (MA War Studies). Gardiner was married to former member of parliament Hekia Parata. They had two children together and Gardiner had three other children from a previous marriage to former member of parliament Pauline Gardiner, including the film producer Ainsley Gardiner.
Career
Military career
For twenty years Gardiner served in the New Zealand Army as a professional soldier. He saw active service in South Vietnam. He retired from the army in 1983 at the rank of lieutenant colonel; at the time he was the army's highest-ranked Māori officer.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8026726. VIAF identifies the subject as 56793600. The Library of Congress control number is n94005057. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 2022 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wira Gardiner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.