John Klaricich was born in Omapere and was educated at Omapere Primary School and Waiotemarama Primary School. He has worked all his life as a farmer beginning on his mother’s ancestral land in Waiwhatawhata. He has been involved in Agenda 21, has had a twenty-year involvement in local government, and sixteen year’s association with Opononi Area School as a secretary and chairperson. Klaricich is a trustee for Waiwhatawhata, Kokohuia, and Pakanae Marae, and is the chairperson for Waiwhatawhata Marae and the local Māori reservation cemetery. He is a member of the Historic Places Trust and chairs the Māori Heritage Committee. Klaricich served a three-term appointment to the NZ Conservation Authority and has been a member of the Minister of Conservation’s Advisory Committee to the National Heritage Review. He is a member of the Waitangi National Trust Board and chairs the Judicial Hearings Committee of the Far North District Council. Klaricich is a part of the Hokianga Taiapure work group and has compiled reports assisting planning decisions for the Far North District Council. He has written a lot of unpublished prose, poetry and historical writing.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation and correspondence from John Klaricich on 3 August 1998 and 25 June 2004.
Non-fiction
- "Waiamaku Kōiwi." Te Karanga 5.4 (1990): 16-21.
- A detailed account of the formal return of kōiwi and other taonga from the Auckland Institute and Museum which had been taken unlawfully from a wahi-tapu in 1902 by a European farmer and never returned.