Muru Walters

"Rt. Reverend Bishop Muru Walters, MA, Dip Ed, LTh (Aot), Adv Dip Tchg, PGD (Arts), Pihopa o Te Upoko o te Ika. Muru Walters’ life achievements remain far from ordinary and include being an exceptionally talented Maori All Black who was awarded the Tom French Cup in 1957, while simultaneously being an art teacher and an avid practitioner of the visual arts.

In the 1960s Muru (Te Rarawa and Te Aupouri) was responsible for developing a Maori arts curriculum for primary and secondary schools in Northland while studying carving under the tutelage of Pine Taiapa. Having always been an active member of the Anglican Church, today Muru is a Bishop and a revered and influential member of both the religious and Maori community nationwide.

Muru has been involved in the same creative work that influenced and inspired people like Syd Meads, Fred Graham, Ralph Hotere, Kath Mataira, Para Matchiit, Cliff Whiting, to name a few, to share their skills in diverse fields. His life is described by Ngahiraka Mason as a blessed binding together of people. 'If you asked Muru Walters he would say he considered that life was a continuum of redemption and transformation and that one must take heart and find the joy in the ordinariness of life.' (Ngahiraka Mason, Turuki Turuki Paneke Paneke, 2009)."

~ quoted from Penguin Books New Zealand biography.

In 2021 Walters' book Marae : te tatau pounamu : a journey around New Zealand's meeting houses, with photographs by Robin Walters and Sam Walters, was published by Penguin Random House New Zealand.