The late Dame Katerina Mataira, DNZM, Waikato
The Insignia was accepted by Ms Erana Brewerton, and family members, on behalf of the late Dame Katerina Mataira.
For services to Māori language. Since being made a Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit in 1998, the late Dame Katerina Mataira was at the forefront of the revival of Te Reo Māori as an author and teacher. In 1998 she was invited by the Chilean government and the Rapanui people to Easter Island to share the Māori experience of recovering Te Reo Māori. She wrote a number of literary works in Māori, including a science fiction saga, ‘Te Atea’, a historical novel ‘Makorea’, and the Rehua Chronicles; ‘Rehua’, ‘Hokio’, ‘Maungaroa’, and ‘Hokingaroa’. She also wrote a number of award-winning picture books in Māori for children, including 'Maui and the Big Fish', 'Marama Taniweto', and 'Nga Mokonui a Rangi'. In collaboration with Oxford University Press, her publication of the first Māori Picture Dictionary became a welcome resource for teachers, parents, students and children. She was one of the founders and a guiding force behind the Te Ataarangi Trust, which trains Māori language tutors in the methods devised by Dame Katerina. In 1996 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato. Dame Katerina received the Te Waka Toi Exemplary Award in 2001, the Betty Guilderdale Award for children’s books in 2008, the UNESCO Linguapax Award for the preservation and promotion of linguistic diversity in 2009, and the New Zealand Post Children’s Book of the Year in 2010 for ‘Hūhū Koroheke’.