A lifetime of dedication to genealogy, Maori culture and performing arts and his church has seen Paora Whaanga awarded the MNZM in the New Year Honours List.
Approaching his 80th birthday, he remains busy and is working on a history of his iwi Rakaipaaka from the Nuhaka area.
He describes the award, officially a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, as humbling.
 “There are a lot of unsung heroes out there,” he says, stressing the help he has had from his family and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of which he has been a bishop.
Born at Nuhaka, Mr Whaanga was one of 11 boys — “in the middle of the batting order”.
His father died when he was young and after attending Nuhaka School he graduated “into the school of hard knocks,” working on the family farm.
 After spending time in the “big smoke” of Wellington, he returned to the Gisborne area and spent 25 years working for Watties before retiring.
Since his return he has been active in a number of Maori community and cultural projects.
A member of the Rakaipaaka Iwi Trust he was a guide for the Rakaipaaka Historic Treks for 50 years. He took people on tours of the iwi’s rohe — which extends from Momumomukai near Morere towards Mahia and Wairoa — visiting the marae of the area and relating its history.
Many former local people who had returned for Christmas or a funeral made these treks to learn their history.
Mr Whaanga also affiliates to Muriwai’s Ngai Tamanuhiri and was a member of its tribal and marae committees.
He has been a whaikorero and kawa tutor for Tama Tane o Rakaipaaka and a history and whakapapa tutor to the carvers of Te Tahinga Marae at Nuhaka.
He has also been a judge of the national Tamararo and the national Kapa Haka Aotearoa Maori Performing Arts competitions.
A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he spent five terms as a bishop and was the director and seminary instructor of the church’s whakapapa and research centre for the Gisborne area, which has about 2000 parishioners.
The centre at Mangapapa had a staff of 12 to 14 and spent time on the extraction into family groups from the genealogy records, many of which recorded only one child.

Mr Whaanga has 15 children and can count 56 grandchildren and 45 great-grandchildren.
His first wife, Mary Lena Elizabeth Taurima, predeceased him and he remarried Hineiromia — a granddaughter of historian Rongowhakaata Halbert, author of the history Horouta.
Mr Whaanga also affiliates through genealogy (whakapapa) to Ngati Pahauwera of Mohaka, Ngati Hinepua/ Ngai Te Ipu of Whakaki,  Ngati Kurapakiaka of Te Wairoa, Rongomaiwahine of Te Mahia, Ngati Rakaipaaka of Nuhaka,Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, and Ngai Tamanuhiri of Turanganui.
 For several years, he conducted wananga with Te Rakato Marae of Te Mahia, sharing tales and genealogies with the local marae.
  He has enjoyed working with Rongowhakaata Kahui Kaumaatua continuously for the past 15 years, prior to, and during Tribunal Hearings, as well the Turanganui-a-Kiwa Runanga Kaumaatua Kahui.
 His interest in genealogy and Maori culture remains high as he continues to work on a book on the history of his iwi Rakaipaaka.
“I love what I am doing,” he said.