Fellow politicians have been among more than 1000 mourners paying tribute to Parekura Horomia at his home marae.
The Labour MP and former Maori Affairs Minister died on Monday aged 62.
On Wednesday, his body was brought to Hauiti Marae in Tolaga Bay for the first day of his tangi, and the first of many powhiri to welcome visitors began.
Hundreds of people have paid their respects at Mr Horomia's tangi at Hauiti Marae near Gisborne. Photo: RNZ
Labour MPs arrived on Wednesday to remember their colleague, and one of them, Hauraki-Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta, says she shared a close bond with Mr Horomia, who influenced many lives.
Ms Mahuta says he could relate to a variety of people because of his upbringing - he walked to school in bare feet and later worked as a shearer.
She says Mr Horomia's colleagues believed he would recover from his ill health, so losing him so quickly has been a shock.
She says his tangihanga is a natural expression of love for a man who understood the Maori heartbeat.
'Concern for people' led him to politics
A relative of Mr Horomia says his concern for people led him into politics.
Wayne Ngata, who is also the spokesperson for Hauiti Marae, says Mr Horomia was influenced by his work with employment schemes on the East Coast and his desire to advance Maori.
Mr Ngata says the MP travelled widely and visited many marae across the country where he felt he needed to offer his contribution to help Maori lead better lives.
He says Mr Horomia championed Maori causes for four decades.
Remembered for human touch
A Ngati Porou man based in Thailand, Te Atawhai Tibble, says Mr Horomia lived with and for the people.
Mr Tibble, who has been unable to attend the tangi, says Mr Horomia could connect with young people, working class people, rural people and those struggling to make ends meet.
He says he was as well known in the kauta or out the back in the cookhouse as he was out front on the paepae or the orator's bench.
Mr Tibble says Mr Horomia had a very human touch: there were no flash airs or graces about him and he spoke his own form of eloquent English and Maori.
Mr Tibble says Maoridom will be poorer for that if no representatives within the iwi step up to fill his shoes.