Kāterina Mataira


Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira was a New Zealand Māori language proponent, educator, intellectual, artist and writer. Her efforts to revive and revitalise the Māori language, led to the growth of the Māori immersion schools in New Zealand.

Biography

She was born in 1932 in Tokomaru Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. She was a member of the Ngāti Porou Māori iwi. Mataira had nine children with her husband, Junior Te Ratu Karepa Mataira. She initially studied to be an art teacher and educator.
Mataira and a friend, fellow teacher Ngoi Pēwhairangi, co-founded the Te Ataarangi program as a way to teach and revitalize the Māori language. Mataira was intrigued by the Silent Way, a language teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno, and adapted to method to teach Māori. Her efforts earned her the nickname as the "mother" of the Kura Kaupapa Māori, or Maori immersion schools, according to Dr Pita Sharples. She also authored Māori language children's picture books and novels.
Mataira died on 16 July 2011, in Hamilton, at the age of 78. She was survived by her nine children, 50 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Her tangi, or Māori funeral, was at the Ohinewaiapu Marae in Rangitukia.

Honours and awards

In the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, Mataira was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the Māori language. One month before her death, she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, also for services to the Māori language, in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.
In 2007, Mataira received the Betty Gilderdale Award.