KNIGHT’S CRUSADE
One of the first things you notice when talking to Tā/Sir Mark Solomon is his remarkable recall of people, dates, times and statistics. His accounts of his childhood, time at the helm of Ngāi Tahu and life since then are detailed and relayed with a sense of quiet gravity.
Fortunately for some, the 66-year-old has learnt over the years to forgive, but the man nicknamed “Mr Memory” is unlikely to forget – “I have all the secrets of Ngāi Tahu”. But, brought up not to air dirty linen in public, he insists he has “kept all the dirt out” of his recently released memoir, Mana Whakatipu.
The book was written with journalist Mark Revington on the condition that Solomon’s immediate family were off limits. But he pays homage to his wife, Lady Maria. They married when she was 17 and he was 20. They have four children and a whāngai/adopted son, all now in their thirties and forties. The book’s dedication reads, “Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei – for us and our children after us.”
Solomon’s mother, Nyra May, was of English and Danish descent and his father, George, was Māori. Solomon is affiliated to Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kurā. The family had a house in Christchurch where
