Kāterina Mataira, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Kāterina Mataira

New Zealand activist

Date of Birth: 13-Nov-1932

Place of Birth: Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne District, New Zealand

Date of Death: 16-Jul-2011

Profession: intellectual, artist, novelist

Nationality: New Zealand

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Dame Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira (13 November 1932 – 16 July 2011) was a New Zealand Maori language proponent, educator, intellectual, artist and writer.
Her efforts to revive and revitalise the Maori language (te reo Maori), led to the growth of the Maori immersion schools (Kura Kaupapa Maori) in New Zealand.She was born in 1932 in Tokomaru Bay, on the east coast of the North Island.
She was a member of the Ngati Porou Maori 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 Pewhairangi, co-founded the Te Ataarangi program as a way to teach and revitalize the Maori language.
Mataira was intrigued by the Silent Way, a language teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno, and adapted to method to teach Maori.
Her efforts earned her the nickname as the "mother" of the Kura Kaupapa Maori, or Maori immersion schools, according to Dr.
Pita Sharples.
She also authored Maori language children's picture books and novels.In the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours Mataira was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for service to the Maori language.
In 2007 she was awarded the Betty Gilderdale Award.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 Maori funeral, was at the Ohinewaiapu Marae in Rangitukia.