Maanu Paul

Cletus Maanu Paul (18 November 1938 – 15 September 2022) was a New Zealand Māori leader. He served as co-chair of the New Zealand Māori Council.

Early life Born in Murupara on 18 November 1938, Paul affiliated to Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Manawa. After leaving school he worked as a surveyor, but later studied to become a teacher at Hamilton Teachers' College in 1974. His first teaching post was at Hamilton Boys' High School, and in 1975 he took a group of students to take part in the Māori land march when it passed through Hamilton.

In 2012, Paul was involved in a legal challenge of the Fifth National Government's programme of partial privatisation of state-owned assets. He was involved in a number of claims to the Waitangi Tribunal, including a claim into the Government's review of the 1962 Maori Community Development Act. Paul also highlighted the danger that falling carbon credits in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme pose to Māori commercial ventures. He advocated the stopping of international carbon credits from being valid in the New Zealand scheme, in order to increase the price of carbon.

In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Paul was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori.

Personal life and death In 2013, it was reported that Paul had cancer and had undergone chemotherapy. He died on 15 September 2022, at the age of 83.