Rameka James Cope

Rameka Cope was born in Hukanui, Taheke, and attended Moehau Native School, Taheke Primary School, Waima Primary School, and Northland College. He went to Teachers’ College in Auckland. He also studied Accountancy and Law at Auckland University and graduated with a B.Com in Accountancy. He worked for the Māori Affairs Department in Whangarei as an accountant and also as a translator for the Māori Queen from Cope trained and qualified as a psychiatric nurse at Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital. He spent three years in South Dakota with the Native American Indians and returned to South Dakota for short periods of times over twelve years. He also travelled to Samoa and studied Samoan. Cope spent a year as a Māori language tutor at Northland Community College. In 1986 he moved to the Māori Affairs Department where he worked as a Māori Language Co-ordinator. Cope lived in Wellington for many years where he worked for the N.Z.B.C. and taught te reo Māori at Victoria University. In 1991 he returned to Auckland married Meri in 1992 and had two children. Cope was a Minister of the Methodist Church. He spent his last years in the South Hokianga. Cope was involved with the writing of the new Ngapuhi Dialect Dictionary which was compiled by a number of people including Pa Tate.

Biographical sources

• Phone call from Meri Cope, 8 Sept. 1998.
• Living Languages: Bilingualism & Community Language in New Zealand. Ed. Walter Hirsh. Auckland, N.Z.: Heinemann in association with the Office of The Race Relations Conciliator, 1987. 85.