Ray Ahipene-Mercer

Raymond Ahipene-Mercer (born 20 October 1948) is a former New Zealand politician, who served as a Wellington City Councillor for the Eastern Ward, only the second Māori to be elected to the Wellington City Council and the first Māori to be elected since 1962. He is also a guitar-maker, musician, and environmentalist, and was one of the leaders of the Clean Water Campaign, which led to the end of sewage pollution of the Wellington coast. the first Māori ever to contest the position. He was runner-up to the incumbent. As a musician and guitar maker he usually uses the name Ray Mercer, and has used the name Ray Ahipene-Mercer for other purposes including his environmental work and politics.

Family background Ahipene-Mercer is of Māori, Welsh, Swedish, and Scots descent. He descends from the ancient Wellington tribes of Ngāi Tara and Ngāti Ira. Direct ancestors were members of the Ngāti Ira people displaced after conflict in the Wellington area in the 1820s to the Wairarapa. Ahipene Mercer's closest Māori links now are at Pirinoa, and Kohunui Marae, the people of his maternal grandmother. His mother's father, from whom the name "Ahipene" was passed down, was of the Ngāti Kahungunu, tribe from the area around Pōrangahau, and also of Ngāi Tahu descent. This grandfather was also of Scots descent, through James Wybrow, a whaler. There is a strong family link with Ruapuke Island, between Stewart Island and the South Island.

Ahipene Mercer's mother, Ramona Ahipene, married Eugene (Gene) Mercer, a seaman of mixed Welsh and Swedish ancestry who arrived in New Zealand after World War II. Both parents were both active members of the celebrated Ngāti Pōneke Māori club in Wellington City, and later the famous Hutt Valley Māwai Hakona group. The whole family was closely associated with the urban Orongomai Marae. Eugene Mercer was a staunch trade unionist.

Ahipene-Mercer married Christine (Chris) Viggars in 1972. After an extended overseas experience in the UK they returned to New Zealand, where Chris died, suddenly, in 1981.

Early life and education Ahipene-Mercer was raised in Petone and Upper Hutt, and attended Trentham School and Upper Hutt College, where despite congenital problems with one arm and leg he captained the rugby first XV. They were number two on the New Zealand Hit Parade in 1969 with their first single, "Wait for me Maryanne", a cover of a 1968 song by Marmalade,

He has the unusual status as the only City Councillor ever to perform in the Wellington International Festival of the Arts as part of the "Maori All Stars" in 2006.

Community activist, environmentalist Described as a "tireless environmental campaigner" by former Mayor Mark Blumsky, and arranged the construction of the first artificial nesting areas for the birds in Wellington. Poachers of pāua, or New Zealand abalone, have been a particular target of Ahipene-Mercer's attention, and as an honorary fisheries ranger he has seized and returned many thousands of illegal pāua to the sea. He regularly speaks to groups, especially schools, about environmental issues, and includes a strong Māori perspective in these talks. He is an advocate of reforestation in Wellington City and has been an active organiser of community tree-planting events and in 1996–1997 assisted Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in creating an audio tape of Māori names of flora and fauna for use by sanctuary volunteers and members. Ahipene-Mercer was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and he received a major conservation award in 1998. He was elected again in 2001 and 2004. Mana News Service reported that in 2001 he was one of only 20 Māori, out of a total of over a thousand New Zealanders, to win office in local elections that October. He is only the second Māori to be elected to the Wellington City Council and the first Māori to be elected since 1962. has been a member of the Wellington Conversation Board, and a trustee of the Joe Aspill Trust.

Initially regarded as part of the "left" group on Council, Ahipene-Mercer has avoided alignment with any faction, preferring to work across all groups. He has fielded some criticism from supporters for his willingness to work cooperatively with right-wing Mayor Kerry Prendergast, but announced in early 2007 his intention to oppose Prendergast in the elections to be held later that year. He told reporters he was "in to win", and if elected would continue to work with all councillors.He was runner-up in the election.

In June 2018 he was elected Chair of the Board of Orchestra Wellington, succeeding the previous chair and continuing his involvement in arts governance.