Linguapax Award Ceremony
Hon Dr Pita Sharples
Minister of Maori Affairs
28 July 2009 , 4.00pm
Grand Hall, Parliament
 Professor Miguel Essombe presenting Linguapax Prize 2009 to Dr Katerina Mataira.
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, nau mai, haere mai ki roto i te Whare Paremata o Aotearoa.
Mauria mai ō koutou mate, rātou ko te hunga wairua e arahi ana i a tātou i tēnei ao hurihuri. Nā rātou ō tātou taonga katoa i tuku iho mai ki a tātou, tae atu ki ō tātou reo, no reira e kore rātou e wareware. Ko tātou te hunga ora e takahi ana i ō rātou tapuwae, kia taea rā anō ngā taumata i tohua e rātou.
Nō reira kia ora tātou katoa.
E te manuhiri tuarangi, Miquel Angel Essomba, e te Kaihautu o te waka o UNESCO e kawe nei i tēnei kaupapa whakahirahira, koutou ko tō ropu, nau mai haere mai e te waewae tapu.
Ko tēnei 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 nō Ngāti Porou a Kāterina, ko tētahi whakatauaki o tōna iwi: ‘Ehara taku maunga i te maunga nekeneke'. Ko tōna hiahia, kia haere mai koe ki Aotearoa, kia whakawhiwhia te whanuitanga o te Whānau o Te Ataarangi ki tōna tohu, ā, kia rongo ai koe i te manaakitanga o ngā iwi o Aotearoa.
Heoi anō, ka whakaae mai koe, ka tae mai koe, ka kite tātou, he rangatira koe, e manaaki ana koe i ngā tikanga o ō tātou tipuna. Nō reira haere mai, haere mai!
Kāterina, koutou ko tō whānau, ko tō ropu o Te Ataarangi, tēnā koe, tēnā koutou.
Mō koutou te karanga o te pō, nau mai, haere mai!
Haere mai kia whakanuitia koe, otirā koutou, e ngā mana, e ngā reo o te ao.
Ko te reo te kaupapa o te pō, arā, ko tō tātou reo rangatira. Me pēnei te kōrero, kei te whakanuitia koutou, nā tō koutou kaha ki te whakarauora i tō tātou reo.
Kei konei tātou i tēnei pō, nā te mea, kua tau mai ngā kanohi o ngā iwi taketake o te ao ki a koutou, ki a tātou, me tā koutou mahi whakahirahira.
Huri noa i te ao, kei te matemate haere ngā reo taketake, engari i Aotearoa nei, kei te puta te ihu, kei te āta hoki mai ō tātou reo tipuna, mai i te ao wairua ki te ao marama.
Kei te whakanuitia ā koutou mahi, nā te mea, he tauira hei whakahau i ētahi atu iwi, kia kaha tonu tātou ki te whakarauora i ō tātou reo tipuna.
Nō reira kei te mihi. Kei te mihi ki a koutou i tēnei pō; kei te mihi ki te nuinga o ngā iwi o te motu e whakapau kaha ana ki te hāpai i ō tātou reo, otirā kei te mihi ki tō tātou manuhiri, māna ngā whakaaro rangatira o ngā iwi o te ao e whakaputa.
When Kāterina 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 Ngāti Porou man.
Today, as we honour Dr Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira, recipient of the 2009 Linguapax Award, we acknowledge her parents, we acknowledge Ngāti 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".
Kāterina has dazzled and dazzled from the moment she first picked up her pen and started to write.
Te Wā o te Reo Māori / Māori Language Week is the perfect opportunity to honour a woman who has been at the forefront of Māori language revival and who has earned universal respect for the passion she has helped to generate in the revival of te reo Māori.
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 Kāterina's contribution has been outstanding at every level.
Kāterina had been breaking barriers, and creating change, since back in 1956 when she established the very first Māori language class in a state school at Northland College in Kaikohe.
My association with Kāterina goes way back to the seventies.
At that time, Kāterina 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 wā), to be invited to join with her and her team of Māori language experts as they sought to expand on the various aspects of the Ataarangi programme pioneered by Kāterina. 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 Kāterina 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 Māori 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.
Kāterina 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 Māori amongst non-speaking Māori adults, a flagship for te reo Māori.
In 1981 and 1982, many of us including Kāterina and of course Dame Iritana Tawhiwhirangi and many others, responded to the call of the then Secretary of Māori Affairs, Kara Puketapu, to hui in this building. At this event, the concept of a kōhanga mō te reo Māori was born.
This was following by the explosion of Māori language nests throughout the entire country over the next few years.
However we observed that our tamariki graduating from kōhanga reo were enrolling in general schools and losing their reo Māori.
Head by a courageous group of parents at Hoani Waititi Marae, we decided to build kura, a school version of kōhanga reo to continue total immersion Māori language for our five year olds.
I remember journeying down to Whaingaroa to Kāterina'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".
Kāterina 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 Māori.
She helped us achieve our dreams, and in doing so, to create a vital step for all tangata whenua in the journey of Māori language renaissance.
She is the mother of kura kaupapa Māori - and she went on to co-authored Te Aho Matua - the philosophy and charter for kaupapa Māori schools - yet another flagship to carry te reo Māori revitalisation.
But when we look at her long and prestigious career, the birth of kura kaupapa Māori is just one of many firsts for Kāterina.
Last year Auckland Art Gallery's Turuki! Turuki! Paneke! Paneke! exhibition celebrated the first exhibition of Māori 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 Kāterina Mataira.
In fact, Kāterina 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 Māori for children including winning Lianza's Te Kura Pounamu Māori 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 Māori. 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 Māori.
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 Māori 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 Kāterina - 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 Māori.
The theme of Māori Language Week 2009 is Te Reo i te Hāpori: 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 Ataarangi.
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 Kāterina to Easter Island to help develop a language recovery programme.
In 1987 Kāterina was appointed a foundation member of the Māori 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 Māori. 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 Māori.
But if you were to ask Kāterina, perhaps the most dazzling of all the achievements of the Matriarch of Te Ataarangi; the mother of kura kaupapa Māori, is the strength and talents of the whānau she and her husband, Junior Te Ratu Karepa, have created.
I am told that Kāterina 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 Māori 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.
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