Māori leader and member of Parliament Apirana Ngata spent much of his life promoting aspects of Māori culture to fellow Māori and to non-Māori. This 1947 photo shows him at a meeting of the Polynesian Society, which he had joined 50 years earlier. He became a life member in 1920, was a leading contributor to its journal during the 1940s, and served as president from 1938 until his death in 1950. As a senior politician, Ngata helped to ensure that the society received public funding for its publications. From 1958 his son William maintained a Māori presence on the society's council.