Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira is a New Zealand Māori activist and former parliamentarian. He was elected to parliament as the member for the Māori electorate of Te Tai Tokerau in 2005 as the Māori Party candidate. In 2011, following a rift with party colleagues, Harawira resigned from the Māori Party. He subsequently announced the formation of the Mana Party, and then resigned from parliament to trigger the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, which he won as leader of the new party. Mana, now the Mana Movement, campaigned alongside the Internet Party in the 2014 general election, but failed to return Harawira or the party to parliament. He also stood unsuccessfully in 2017. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harawira led community efforts to roadblock parts of the Far North District in 2020 and 2021. Early years Harawira was born to John Puriri Harawira and Titewhai Harawira in Whangarei on 6 January 1955. He was raised in West Auckland and attended St Stephen's School, a boarding school for Māori boys, and the University of Auckland. He credits people like Muhammad Ali, Syd Jackson, Nelson Mandela, Māori Marsden, his mother and his wife for teaching him "the need for strength, commitment, wisdom and vision". His mother descends from the Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Wai and Ngāti Hine tribes, his father from Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua, and he is part Pākehā. He married Hilda Halkyard from the Ngāti Haua hapū (subtribe) of Te Rarawa. Activism His mother is a prominent Māori activist. Harawira played a role in Treaty of Waitangi issues, Māori language revitalisation, land occupations, and Māori broadcasting. In 1979 Harawira was part of He Taua, which confronted drunk University of Auckland engineering students who performed a parody of the "Ka Mate" haka with obscenities painted on their bodies. He Taua responded to the cultural insult, which resulted in the engineering students sustaining several broken bones. In 2009 when he and his wife revisited the School of Engineering Harawira said "When people refuse to do what's right, at the end of the day you step in, do what you've got to do." He was a key participant in He Taua, the 1981 Springbok tour protests, and the 2004 foreshore and seabed hīkoi, the last of which led to him entering parliament. Member of Parliament First term in Parliament: 2005–2008 Harawira stood in the 2005 general election as the Māori Party candidate for