Mason Durie (community leader)John Mason Durie was a New Zealand tribal leader, interpreter, public servant, farmer, and community leader.BackgroundOf Māori descent, he identified with the Ngāti Kauwhata and Rangitāne iwi. He was born in Aorangi, in the Manawatū, in 1889. Durie died on 20 April 1971 in the same house he was born in. Eddie Durie and Mason Durie are his grandsons.