Joe Harawira

Biography

Joseph "Hohepa" Harawira QSM (1946-2017) was a Māori kaumātua (elder) and environmental campaigner in New Zealand, prominent for raising issues of dioxin poisoning around Whakatāne in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. He was the leader of Sawmill Workers Against Poisons (SWAP), a group which sought official recognition of, and remedies for, the environmental pollution and human health problems associated with the timber industry’s use of the toxic chemical pentachlorophenol (PCP).