Waikato University honour for Māori language proponent
August 31, 2011
Waikato University honour for
Māori language proponent
Not being allowed to learn Māori at high school was the catalyst for a life-long career in Māori teaching and championing Māori rights for Cathy Dewes.
Cathy Dewes (Te Arawa and Ngāti Porou)
is being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University
of Waikato on September 6 at Ruamata Marae in
Rotorua.
As head prefect at Wellington Girls back in
the late ‘60s, Cathy was able to learn and speak Italian
German, French and Latin, but her request to learn Māori
was turned down by the principal. “It was then I realised
that society needed to change in order that Māori might
live.”
Cathy earned a degree in Māori from Victoria
University and it was while she was at university that she
joined her peers to form the Te Reo Māori Society,
supported the Māori Language Petition and lobbied for
Māori news on radio and television. She was one of the
original battlers for Māori Language week which is now in
its 36th year.
In 1985, Cathy, a trained teacher,
opened one of the first Māori language schools in New
Zealand Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ruamata in Rotorua. She
worked unpaid for almost a decade until government funding
was secured and is still the school’s principal.
She considers the development and implementation of
the Aho Matua approach to learning and teaching in Kura
Kaupapa Māori her major achievement.
But she was
also a trailblazer for women. In 1994 Cathy became the
first woman to stand for the Te Arawa Trust Board, which had
existed without women for 50 years. She was supported by
her own Ngāti Rangitihi iwi and won a seat. The incumbent
trustees objected but a high court decision enabled Cathy to
take her place on the board where she served until 2006.
She is still a member of the Te Rūnanganui o Te
Arawa, the iwi authority representing the majority of hapu
of the confederation of Te Arawa, and through these
affiliations has developed a teacher education programme in
association with the universities of Waikato and Auckland.
Cathy maintains her life-long interest in Māori radio and
continues to serve as a trustee with Te Reo Irirangi o Te
Arawa. She is a director of Māori television and is a
Trustee of Te Mana o Ngāti Rangitihi.
Cathy is also
proud of her sporting endeavours. Six years ago her school
community took up waka ama paddling. They built up their
skills, entered competitions and in 2007 Cathy won a bronze
medal at nationals in a single outrigger, and at the world
champs the same year, she brought home silver in the double
event. She sees waka ama as a way of reclaiming an ancient
skill within which is embedded a body of Māori knowledge
and wisdom essential for modern living.
Waikato
University Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford says Cathy
Dewes has had an outstanding career. “Her contribution to
the revitalisation of Māori language and Māori education,
her commitment to her local community and her many
accomplishments are consistent with the University’s
vision, charter, goals and distinctiveness. I feel
privileged to be conferring her honorary doctorate.”
ends