Iritana Tawhiwhirangi
Dame Iritana Tawhiwhirangi, of Masterton, received the Insignia of a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori education. She has been one of the “cornerstones of the kōhanga reo movement” and been involved in reversing the decline in Māori language. She began teaching on the East Coast in 1948 before joining the Department of Māori Affairs where she became the first Māori woman to be appointed as a District Officer. She was appointed as an inaugural trustee and the General Manager of the Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust Board in 1982. She continues as a trustee of Trust, the Deputy Chair of the Māori Education Trust, a Commissioner of Te Taura Whiri and a member of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. She was a member of a ministerial working group for the development of a strategic plan for early childhood education in 2001 and facilitated the project that resulted in the development of Te Whariki; the Ministry of Education early childhood curriculum. She is also a member of the Te Whare Tapere Performing Arts Board and the Electoral College of Māori Television. She is also involved with a wide variety of community organisations, including as a member of the Māori Spectrum Trust, the Māori Women’s Welfare League and the New Zealand Māori Gold Association. Dame Iritana was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature by Victoria University of Wellington in 2007 and the Te Tohu Tiketike a Te Waka Toi award for Māori artists by Creative New Zealand in 2008.