IN tribute Dave Simmons 154 knowledge in part to identify the original ownership and signifi cance of artifacts. In part to record this knowledge, he published Whakairo: Maori Tribal Art (1985) and Ta Moko: The Art of Maori Tattoo (1986). Dave’s research increased when he retired. He published many books, including The Meeting Houses of the Ngati Porou O Te Tai Rawhiti (2006) and Greater Maori Auckland (2013). In 2013 the museum made him an associate emeritus, awarding him a Museum Medal in recognition of sustained excellence in research and scholarship as an outstanding scholar and student of Maori art and history. Generous with his knowledge and happy to identify artifacts when asked, Dave was visited by students and researchers for varying reasons. Maori and Chatham Islanders would regularly contact him to ask about their whakapapa and family taonga (treasures). Dave was working on research to the day before his sudden death on November 30, 2015. It was an honor to know Dave, and every one of my and Carolyn’s trips to New Zealand (of which there would be close to thirty) would not be complete without having a long dinner and chat, often at the museum in Auckland, discussing objects from all Pacifi c cultures. It was quite fi tting that the last time I saw Dave was when we shot a documentary together on Maori and Polynesian art, which will soon be released. David, you will be sorely missed on your journey to Hawaiki. By Mark Blackburn With special thanks to Christopher and Luke Simmons, and with help from Ian Thwaites and Shelley Sayes David Simmons was one of New Zealand’s most prolifi c writers on Maori material culture and history, and he was a very close friend. Dave tirelessly strove to educate the wider world about Maori culture, its traditions, and its languages. He attributed his interest in all things Maori to his father, Wilf, who saved an ariki (a high chief’s son) from drowning. In return they gave Wilf the ariki name Te Puru from the Te Aitanga-a Mahaki tribe and taught him the Ariki language. Dave was the last speaker of this ancient language. He inherited the name Te Puru, and later he was also given the name Terehou by the Tuhoe elders. Born and educated in Auckland, he attended Auckland Teachers’ College from 1948 to 1950 and taught in Auckland, Kerepehi in the Waikato, and Naenae in Lower Hutt. After studying at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Université de Rennes in Brittany, he returned to New Zealand to teach at Waiotemarama in the Hokianga, and then at Papakura in Auckland. He used his spare time as a teacher to learn what he could from Maori elders. While teaching, he also studied at the University of Auckland, in 1976 publishing his master’s thesis as The Great New Zealand Myth: A Study of the Discovery and Origin Traditions of the Maori. He visited museums in North America in 1973 and Europe in 1978, producing comprehensive catalogs of Maori material, which later guided repatriation efforts, especially of mokomokai (tattooed heads) by Maui Pomare and Maui (Dalvanius) Prime. In 1978 Dave became assistant director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum but resigned in 1985, the same year he was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to ethnology and the Maori people. Just before retirement, Dave, Maui Pomare, and Hirini Moko Mead were responsible for the infl uential traveling exhibition Te Maori, which introduced Maori art and culture to the public at large when it opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1984. Dave’s knowledge was based on written historical resources, artifacts, and the oral knowledge of Maori elders. He became an expert in whakapapa (genealogy) and used this
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