A new poll shows Labour is neck-and-neck with the Maori Party for co-leader Pita Sharples' seat.
He's retiring and his former chairman, Rangi McLean, is standing in his place in Tamaki Makaurau. If Mr McLean wins, he'll be the first MP to enter Parliament with a full facial tattoo.
In 1997 Mr McLean became the first person with a full facial moko to graduate from university.
"People actually gave me strange looks, but because I knew it was okay by my elders," he says. "I wear it with distinction."
Now he's hoping to become the first with a full facial moko to enter Parliament.
"I won't just be walking into Parliament wearing the ta moko; I will be walking in Parliament with all my ancestors on my shoulders."
The Tuhoe father-of-six was raised in the Ureweras.
"I never had any shoes when I went to primary. How I used to warm my feet up was every time a horse or a cow did a pee in a forest, that's how I used to warm my feet up."
His family moved to south Auckland when he was 11. He dropped out of school two years later, taking a cleaning job.
He went on to impress his bosses so much they paid for him to go to night school. Two diplomas and a master's degree later, and he's just finished his PhD thesis.
Now he's hoping to add more letters after his name – MP – and he's standing in the seat that his retiring co-leader, Dr Sharples, has won three times.
"I can't attempt to fill his shoes. What I can do is take on his examples, promote them and cut my own path."
But the latest poll from Maori TV has put him and Labour candidate Peeni Henare almost neck-and-neck.
"That's good because if I was way ahead, that would make me complacent," says Mr McLean.
Mr McLean's Tuhoe roots tie him to another, better-known man with a ta moko – his cousin, Tame Iti.
Iti is also standing for the Maori Party, as a list candidate. It's unlikely he'll get in, but both hope even one ta moko in the House will change the face of Parliament.
3 News
source: newshub archive
