Hon Dr Pita Sharples
Minister of Maori Affairs

27 July 2009, 4.30pm
Grand Hall, Parliament Speech notes
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Linguapax Award Ceremony

E nga mana, e nga reo, nau mai, haere mai ki roto i te Whare Paremata o Aotearoa.

Mauria mai o koutou mate, ratou ko te hunga wairua e arahi ana i a tatou i tenei ao hurihuri. Na ratou o tatou taonga katoa i tuku iho mai ki a tatou, tae atu ki o tatou reo, no reira e kore ratou e wareware. Ko tatou te hunga ora e takahi ana i o ratou tapuwae, kia taea ra ano nga taumata i tohua e ratou.

No reira kia ora tatou katoa.

E te manuhiri tuarangi, Miquel Angel Essomba, e te Kaihautu o te waka o UNESCO e kawe nei i tenei kaupapa whakahirahira, koutou ko to ropu, nau mai haere mai e te waewae tapu.

Ko tetahi tikanga e mohiotia whanuitia e te ao, me haere te itinga ki te rahinga. Me haere te tangata ki te maunga, ki reira rongo ai i te mana whakarangatira i a ia.

Engari no Ngati Porou a Katerina, ko tetahi whakatauaki o tona iwi: ‘Ehara taku maunga i te maunga nekeneke’. Ko tona hiahia, kia haere mai koe ki Aotearoa, kia whakawhiwhia te whanuitanga o te Whanau o Te Ataarangi ki tona tohu, a, kia rongo ai koe i te manaakitanga o nga iwi o Aotearoa.

Heoi ano, ka whakaae mai koe, ka tae mai koe, ka kite tatou, he rangatira koe, e manaaki ana koe i nga tikanga o o tatou tipuna. No reira haere mai, haere mai!

Katerina, koutou ko to whanau, ko to ropu o Te Ataarangi, tena koe, tena koutou.

Mo koutou te karanga o te po, nau mai, haere mai!

Haere mai kia whakanuitia koe, otira koutou, e nga mana, e nga reo o te ao.

Ko te reo te kaupapa o te po, ara, ko to tatou reo rangatira. Me penei te korero, kei te whakanuitia koutou, na to koutou kaha ki te whakarauora i to tatou reo.

Kei konei tatou i tenei po, na te mea, kua tau mai nga kanohi o nga iwi taketake o te ao ki a koutou, ki a tatou, me ta koutou mahi whakahirahira.

Huri noa i te ao, kei te matemate haere nga reo taketake, engari i Aotearoa nei, kei te puta te ihu, kei te ata hoki mai o tatou reo tipuna, mai i te ao wairua ki te ao marama.

Kei te whakanuitia a koutou mahi, na te mea, he tauira hei whakahau i etahi atu iwi, kia kaha tonu tatou ki te whakarauora i o tatou reo tipuna.

No reira kei te mihi. Kei te mihi ki a koutou i tenei po; kei te mihi ki te nuinga o nga iwi o te motu e whakapau kaha ana ki te hapai i o tatou reo, otira kei te mihi ki to tatou manuhiri, mana nga whakaaro rangatira o nga iwi o te ao e whakaputa.

When Katerina was growing up there were no books at home. The closest the young girl came, was to read the ‘Children’s Corner’ in her mother’s English Women’s Weekly.

But the stories that her parents, Raniera and Erana Harrison told, took her to new worlds and encouraged her to dream.

Her father was a brilliant storyteller, who would spend hours feeding their imagination with the stories of his own life. He had a special knack for spine-chilling ghost stories, only interrupted when he’d send one of the kids outside to fetch wood for the fire. Such is the wit of the Ngati Porou man.

Today, as we honour Dr Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira, recipient of the 2009 Linguapax Award, we acknowledge her parents, we acknowledge Ngati Porou, and we acknowledge all of the influences that inspired that young girl in Ruatoria to reach for the sky.

There is a line in her award-winning children’s book, Marama Tangiweto, Crybaby Moon – written with Terewai Kemp- which seems to encapsulate her life.

Thunder and Lightning stopped to ask Moon why she was crying.

“I’m crying because I can’t see my face in the sea” sobbed Moon.

“Oh is that all” said Thunder and Lightning.

“That’s only because you’re not dazzling enough. Why don’t you dazzle a lot harder? Then you’ll see your face in the sea”.

Katerina has dazzled and dazzled from the moment she first picked up her pen and started to write.

Te Wa o te Reo Maori / Maori Language Week is the perfect opportunity to honour a woman who has been at the forefront of Maori language revival and who has earnt universal respect for the passion she has helped to generate in the revival of te reo Maori.

Tonight I have the privilege of being able to congratulate Dr Mataira as we gather to celebrate her having received this prestigious award.

The Linguapax Award is an international honour which recognises the preservation and promotion of mother languages as essential vehicles of identity and cultural expression.

The Linguapax Prize is awarded annually to linguists, researchers, professors and individuals in acknowledgment of their outstanding work in the field of linguistic diversity and/or multilingual education.

There can be no question that Katerina’s contribution has been outstanding at every level.

Katerina had been breaking barriers, and creating change, since back in 1956 when she established the very first Maori language class in a state school at Northland College in Kaikohe.

My association with Katerina goes way back to the seventies.

At that time, Katerina was developing the Ataarangi language learning programme.

It was a great honour for me as a young man, (e hikoi tonu ana i te reo i taua wa), to be invited to join with her and her team of Maori language experts as they sought to expand on the various aspects of the Ataarangi programme pioneered by Katerina. It was a humbling experience to be amongst such creations.

It all began when she was granted a Research Fellowship at Waikato University in 1976, and Katerina decided she wasn’t content with changing our world as a prolific writer, she wanted to turn her attention to securing the strength of te reo Maori for the entire population.

She had been excited by a group of American Peace Corps volunteers, who had learned Fijian from native speakers. These speakers had taught others by using coloured Cuisenaire rods.

The ‘Silent Way’ method modelled by Caleb Cattengo was based on large amounts of spoken language – in direct contrast to the grammar based, academic approaches to language learning.

Katerina was inspired by this method to collaborate with her tuakana, the late Kumeroa Ngoi Pewhairangi to create the unique language revitalisation method we know as Te Ataarangi.

Thirty years later, Te Ataarangi is recognised as one of the significant programmes to address the revitalization of te reo Maori amongst non-speaking Maori adults, a flagship for te reo Maori.

In 1981 and 1982, many of us including Katerina and of course Dame Iritana Tawhiwhirangi and many others, responded to the call of the then Secretary of Maori Affairs, Kara Puketapu, to hui in this building. At this event, the concept of a kohanga mo te reo Maori was born.

This was following by the explosion of Maori language nests throughout the entire country over the next few years.

However we observed that our tamariki graduating from kohanga reo were enrolling in general schools and losing their reo Maori.

Head by a courageous group of parents at Hoani Waititi Marae, we decided to build kura, a school version of kohanga reo to continue total immersion Maori language for our five year olds.

I remember journeying down to Whaingaroa to Katerina’s home, to invite, to suggest, to beg her to help us establish such a school in West Auckland. The request was like “what are you doing for the next two and a half years – come and live in Auckland and build a school”.

Katerina came to Auckland for all that time, to join Te Aroha Paenga and me in establishing the programme, curriculum and pedagogy for the first kura kaupapa Maori.

She helped us achieve our dreams, and in doing so, to create a vital step for all tangata whenua in the journey of Maori language renaissance.

She is the mother of kura kaupapa Maori – and she went on to co-authored Te Aho Matua – the philosophy and charter for kaupapa Mäori schools – yet another flagship to carry te reo Maori revitalisation.

But when we look at her long and prestigious career, the birth of kura kaupapa Maori is just one of many firsts for Katerina.

Last year Auckland Art Gallery’s Turuki! Turuki! Paneke! Paneke! exhibition celebrated the first exhibition of Maori contemporary art in Auckland fifty years ago. The five featured artists were Ralph Hotere, Muru Walters, Arnold Manaaki Wilson, Selwyn Wilson and none other than Katerina Mataira.

In fact, Katerina has said that if she wasn’t a writer, her next best choice would be to be an artist. Instead her artistic creativity and unique expression has been demonstrated in her skills as a story-teller.

She has published a number of award winning picture books in Maori for children including winning Lianza's Te Kura Pounamu Maori Book Award in 1996 for Marama Tangiweto and in 1997 for He Tino Kuia Taku Kuia (My Kuia is a Special Kuia).

Next year, Te Pou Taki Korero / Learning Media, will celebrate fifty years since the very first publication of Te Wharekura: the journal for secondary school students in te reo Maori. If you look back over those early editions you will see many dazzling examples of the Mataira gift – from ‘He kai tino reka’; ‘Pao, pao, pao’ through to ‘Te Rango me te ngangara’ in 1997.

But perhaps the most profound example of her excellence as a writer, is her groundbreaking work in the writing of novels in Maori.

Te Ātea was ground-breaking when it appeared in 1975 – it is sophisticated science fiction expressed in te reo Māori and complemented by the artwork of Para Matchitt. Thirty years later, she created the sequel, Rēhua.

Our rangatahi, our graduates of kura kaupapa Māori, have benefited from her ability to tell stories through her native language.

Makorea, in particular, was developed into a radio serial by Te Taura Whiri in association with Te Reo Irirangi o Te Upoko o Te Ika.

Makorea is really loved by Maori language readers – who frequently describe it as one of the best novels they have ever read.

It is an incredible story – recounting the experiences of two wahine survivors from Kaikoura Pā, whom after their Pā was attacked by Te Rauparaha and his war party, leave in search of new surroundings and safety.

I think that what is distinctive about Makorea, is that while many of our historic accounts focus on the activity of the chiefs, this is a story of ordinary people – two rangatahi living between 1828 and 1837. And yet is a story which also reaches into contemporary times by highlighting the futility of violence.

That is what I love about Katerina – her relentless pursuit of challenge.

There can be no bigger challenge in our minds today, than to consider how best to motivate the motu to take on the opportunity of te reo Maori.

The theme of Māori Language Week 2009 is Te Reo i te Hapori: Māori Language in the Community.

Kāterina has always been emphatic that our language will survive in our whānau, our homes and our communities. Indeed, ‘Kia kōrero Māori te motu whānui”, is the motto of Te Ātaarangi.

As the 2009 recipient of the Linguapax award, Kāterina’s work will be showcased to international communities worldwide. I am so proud of her achievements – and know that her reputation is already well established throughout the indigenous world.

As just one example, I recall that in 1998 the Rapanui people, whose language was under the threat of extinction, invited Katerina to Easter Island to help develop a language recovery programme.

In 1987 Katerina was appointed a foundation member of the Maori Language Commission. The New Zealand Academy of the Humanities has bestowed on her the Pou Aronui Award for distinguished service to the humanities-aronui.

In 1996 Waikato University awarded her an honorary doctorate for her contribution to the revival of te reo Maori. A year later she was named in the Queens Honours List in recognition of her contribution to New Zealand.

And in 2001, Dr Mataira was awarded the Te Waka Toi Exemplary Award for her crucial role in the renaissance of te reo Maori.

But if you were to ask Katerina, perhaps the most dazzling of all the achievements of the Matriarch of Te Ataarangi; the mother of kura kaupapa Maori, is the strength and talents of the whanau she and her husband, Junior Te Ratu Karepa, have created.

I am told that Katerina Mataira fell in love the moment she set sight on her future husband.

At last count, they had 8 children, 29 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren – but it could well be much more – for if there’s one key message that has been passed down the generations, it has been, “why don’t you dazzle a lot harder”?

Dr Dazzle – we all congratulate you on your outstanding leadership and life-long commitment to Mäori arts and culture.

Your influence continues to be profound; your achievements have been exceptional.

This award recognises your many talents as an author, artist, a leading figure in the Māori language renaissance and, of course, a visionary.

As a stalwart of Māori language in the community, there is no one more deserving of this special honour than Dr Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira.

ENDS

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