25th, November 2005
NIUE MOURNS THE PASSING OF DR HARRY TAWN NEMAIA, QSO
One
of Niue’s most extraordinary contemporary citizens, Dr Harry Tawn Nemaia, has
passed away at the age of 82 years in Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, after a
long period of illness.
His passing was noted in the Fono Ekepule yesterday where a minute of silence for Dr Nemaia was called for by the Speaker of the House, to mark the respect the Government and the people of Niue has for this extraordinary man. “Dr Harry grew up in an era when men were pioneers of nation building who inspired patriotism in the way they stayed and worked the land, fished the oceans and reefs, and foraged the bush and forests to feed their families. I have every admiration for the single-minded dedication by Dr Harry and the men of his generation,” said Premier Vivian. “We are going to miss him.”
Dr Harry Nemaia was born in June 1923, attended Tufukia Primary School until in his senior years stayed on to teach when he was 16 years of age, from 1939-1940. “I didn’t want to be anything else but a teacher,” he admitted in an interview in 2003, “but I had a good head for mathematics which pointed directly at a career in medicine.” A Scholarship for a Certificate in Dentistry saw Dr Harry in Samoa from 1941-1945, which upon return he was employed as a Dental Officer from 1945-1953.
“They were happy and settled years for me,” he recalled, “and with great reluctance I accepted a Scholarship to study medicine at the Fiji School of Medicine from 1954-1957. The highlight for me during my training was the Gold Medal in Medicine that I had won in 1956.” [Dr Enetama won the Gold Medal in Surgery in the same year] For the next 27 years Dr Harry graduated from Assistant Medical Officer in Niue’ Lord Liverpool Hospital in 1957 until 1984 when he retired from the post of Director of the Health Department a position he had held since 1974.
Dr
Harry continued to be available on a part-time basis and relieving in the Health
Department and in 1991 he was appointed to the Niue Public Service Commission
until he finally retired from all Government services in 1996 – completing a
period of 57 years, truly a remarkable and a consummate Civil Servant bar none.
He wore other public service hats during his distinguished career – a Justice of
Peace and a Commissioner of the Niue High Court in the seventies, an active
member of the Alofi Ekalesia and services to the community in health matters
which eventually earned him recognition of a Queen’s Service Order medal in
1980. When Dr Harry passed away he had given his entire working life to the
Government and to the people of Niue.
So how would one reward a person such as the remarkable Dr Harry Nemaia? “Dr Harry Nemaia is probably one of the last of a generation that truly love Niue with the passion and the dedication that will earn him a special place in our history of eminent and distinguished people,” added Premier Vivian. “His contribution to our nation is without peer. We shall celebrate the return of his body into the land of his ancestors, in a country that has been his home for over 82 years. On behalf of the Government and the people of Niue, thank you Dr Harry. Fakaaue lahi mahaki.