Raglan Chronicle by Raglan Chronicle

Whaingaroa author, te reo pioneer and golfer mourned

management board member Tony Burns as a “passionate member” of the local club. Dame Katerina was club president for three years only relatively recently, before current president Mike Goodison took over. But way back in the early ‘80s when the Te Hutewai Road course was being established – after Maori land rights activist the late Eva Rickard won the former golf course land in Ocean Beach Road back from the Government for her people – she and her husband helped plant all the pine trees that are there today.

Katerina Mataira – despite her 79 years – regularly played an 18-hole round up at Te Hutewai Road until shortly before her death this month in Hamilton. Her passing has left nine children, 50 grandchildren spanning three generations and people all over the country in mourning for a woman who only weeks earlier had been made a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday honours for services to her language. Her daughter – also called Katarina Mataira and based in Raglan at Te Mauri Tau, an incorporated society fostering Maori identity and community – says Dame Katerina loved golf and made every effort to get her people involved locally, traditionally hosting the Maori Golf Tournament. She also served for three years recently as Raglan Golf Club president, the culmination of an involvement dating back decades to when she and her husband helped plant out the relocated Raglan golf course. Dame Katerina also wrote passionately for decades, adds her daughter, largely from her home across the causeway on the Rangitahi Peninsula where son Ratu now lives with his wife Donna and their four children.

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But her inspiration was her home in Whaingaroa and her mokopuna (grandchildren), all of whom she had close personal relationships with, says Katarina. “She was adamant we needed to excite (young) people about language and keep them involved as much as possible.” “Rangi and his Dinosaurs” or “Nga Mokonui a Rangi” – about grandson Rangi Stevenson who is now in his late teens and an accomplished rugby player – is one such colourful children’s book which made its way onto bookshelves at both the local kindergarten and schools as well as entrancing a national audience. It tells the story of Rangi who dreams about a land of friendly dinosaurs and a whole lot of lollies. “Maui and the Big Fish” and “Marama Tangiweto” were other award-winning picture books. Then there was “Kapa Haka a Kereana”, also

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Dame Katerina Mataira

written for her mokopuna, which tells of another grandchild – a very accomplished singer and kapa haka performer – whose parents separated and left her yearning for her father to come home to see her sing and dance. “She was always very good at picking up stories about her grandchildren,” says Katarina. “PIngi Pingi Pi”, the story of an iconic bumble bee, is yet another popular and enduring title. Dame Katerina also wrote several groundbreaking novels, the first of them “Te Atea”, published in 1975. It was science fiction done in haka form, says daughter Katarina, and led the way to a new creative expression in Maori – “looking to the future” as opposed to the traditional Maori tales of creation.

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“Makorea” and “Rehua” followed, the former one of her first novels written for high school students. Dame Katerina travelled and researched before writing the novel on a scholarship from Otago University, says Katarina. It was recently made into a radio play by Te Taura Whiri te Reo (The Maori Language Commission), with the voices of local kaumatua Sean Ellison and Dame Katerina telling the story. Her mother, Katarina adds, always appreciated that the local bookshop downtown stocked a good selection of her work and other Maori publications – both in Maori and in English. This accessibility to the growing body of Maori literature was another key strategy for the revitalisation of te reo Maori within the wider community, which was Dame Katerina’s life’s passion. Outside of her creative talents and closeness to her whanau, playing golf was Dame Katerina’s favourite pastime and she is remembered by

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A memorial service – to be notified in the Chronicle – will also be held at a later date for the humble woman from Ngati Porou. Edith Symes

A lifetime of achievement 1987: Katerina was appointed a foundation member of the Maori Language Commission. The NZ Academy of the Humanities bestowed on her the Pou Aronui Award for distinguished services to the humanitiesaronui. 1988: The Rapanui people, whose language was under threat of extinction, invited Katerina to Easter Island to help develop a language recovery programme.

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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 Queen’s Honours List in recognition of her contribution to New Zealand. 1996 & ’97: Won Lianza’s Te Kura Pounamu Maori Book Award for “Marama Tangiweto” and “He Tino Kuia” (My Kuia is a Special Kuia). 2001: Awarded the Te Waka Toi Exemplary Award for her role in the renaissance of te reo Maori. 2009: Awarded the Lingupax Award which is an international honour recognising the preservation and promotion of mother languages as essential vehicles of identity and cultural expression. 2011: Bestowed in the Queen’s Birthday honours with a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of more than 40 years of leadership and scholarship in the Maori language revival movement.

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While Dame Katerina’s name is on the honours board as president, says Tony, there will now also be a memorial at the golf club in her honour.

She was always very good at picking up stories about her grandchildren. - Katarina Mataira (daughter)

Dame Katerina and her husband Junior moved on a few years ago to Hamilton.

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She was renowned on the national stage as one of Maoridom’s leaders and a te reo pioneer, but many Raglan residents probably knew her better in quite a different role – as a fanatical golfer and golfing administrator.

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