Dame Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira, DNZM (13 November 1932 – 16 July 2011) was a New Zealander Māori language proponent, educator, intellectual, artist and writer.[1] Her efforts to revive and revitalize the Māori language, also known as Te reo Māori, led to the growth of the Māori immersion schools, also called Kura Kaupapa Māori, in New Zealand.[1]
She was born in 1932 in Tokomaru Bay,[2] on the east coast of the North Island.[1] She was a member of the Ngāti Porou Māori iwi.[1] Mataira had nine children with her husband, Junior Te Ratu Karepa Mataira.[3] She initially studied to be an art teacher and educator.[3]
Mataira and a friend, fellow teacher Ngoi Pēwhairangi, co-founded the Te Ataarangi program as a way to teach and revitalize the Māori language.[3] Mataira was intrigued by the Silent Way, a language teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno, and adapted to method to teach Māori.[3] Her efforts earned her the nickname as the "mother" of the Kura Kaupapa Māori, or Maori immersion schools, according to Dr. Pita Sharples.[3] She also authored Māori language children's picture books and novels.[3]
On 7 June 2011, Katerina Mataira was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her service to the Māori language as part of the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.[3]
Dame Katerina Mataira died on 16 July 2011, in Hamilton, New Zealand, at the age of 78.[3] She was survived by her nine children, fifty grandchildren, great grandchildren and one great great grandchild.[3] Her tangi, or Māori funeral, was at the Ohinewaiapu Marae in Rangitukia.[3]