QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY HONOURS

In the list of honours announced today you will find people honoured for services to Maori (quite a few), education, sport, biosecurity, music (several), netball, entertainment, broadcasting, dairy industry, electrical industry, surf life saving, rugby league, cricket, community (loads), and a heap of other categories too covering most aspects of life in New Zealand. But I cannot find any awards for services to book publishing, bookselling, writers and writing, librarianship, or literature and literacy.

The closest we get, and I'm delighted to see this one, is Katerina Mataira being made a Dame Companion for her services to the Maori language. Well deserved too. More below.

Awards of this nature are made of course as a result of persons within various industries, sports and other organisations being active in seeking to have their worthy companions honoured.
Methinks that those of us in the wider world of books are far too modest and lacking in initiative when it comes to these awards. Surely there must be some authors, book publishers, booksellers, or librarians worthy of nomination?

I mentioned Dame Katerina Mataira above. Here is a biographical piece and list of books she has translated taken from the Storylines website.  There is more info at the website.


Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira

Author, artist and academic Kāterina Mataira (Ngati Porou) was born in Tokomaru Bay in 1932 near Gisborne on the east coat of the North Island. Kāterina credits her gift of storytelling to her parents, Raniera and Erana Harrison, who raised a large family in Ruatoria. Māori was their native tongue. ‘My father was a brilliant storyteller,’ Kāterina recalls. ‘Many of his stories were about his own life. They were full of real people and real events. There were scary ones too. He loved to tell ghost stories, then send one of us kids outside to fetch wood for the fire.’

Kāterina was educated at St Joseph's Māori Girls College in Napier and trained as a teacher and art educator. She established the first Māori language class in a state school at Northland College in Kaikohe in 1956. In 1958 she was part of a movement of Northland art educators that presented the first exhibition of contemporary Māori Art.

Kāterina has been at the forefront of Māori language revival and teaching for many years. In 1985 she helped set up the first Māori language immersion school, Kura Kaupapa Māori at Hoani Waititi Marae in Auckland, and co-authored Te Aho Matua – the philosophy and charter for kaupapa Māori schools. In 1987 she was appointed a foundation member of the Māori Language Commission. In 1996 she was made an Honorary Doctor at the University of Waikato. She has published a number of award winning picture books in Māori for children. However, her ground-breaking work has been the writing of novels in Māori - Te Atea (1975), Makorea (2002) and Rehua (2006).

In 1998 Kāterina was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of her contribution to New Zealand. She lives with her husband, Junior Te Ratu Karepa in Raglan where she continues to write books for children. She has eight children, 29 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Kāterina's son, Pita, an artist, has illustrated some of her books, continuing Kāterina’s tradition, as she was first published as an illustrator. 

In 2000, Creative New Zealand offered a grant to Ahuru Press to publish her three-volume historical novel written in te reo. In 2001 she was the recipient of the Te Tohu Tiketike a Te Waka Toi/Te Waka Toi Exemplary Award. Elizabeth Ellis, Chair of Te Waka Toi, Māori Arts Board of Creative New Zealand said ‘Kāterina is an exceptional, creative person. As a Māori woman at the forefront of Māori language renaissance, she’s provided leadership, direction and security. As a writer and an artist, she’s had a profound effect on New Zealand society’.

 Te Reo Translations:

• Paenaena o Papa Koroua by Joy Watson, illustrated by Wendy Hodder (Ashton Scholastic 1993).
• Aha ai Nana? by Carol Geissler, illustrated by Linda McClelland (Scholastic 2000).
• Haereere a Clyde by John Tarlton (Scholastic 2000).
• Hi Ika ma te Mawhitiwhiti Pungawerewere by Lino Nelisi and Elspeth Alix Batt (Scholastic 2000).
• I Kai Parakipere Ahau by Alan Trussell-Cullen, illustrated by Kelvin Hawley (Scholastic 2001).  
• Ta Pokiha by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2001).
• Rakiraki Kei te Puna by Jan McPherson (Scholastic 2001).
• Ko Maui Raua ko te Atua o te Ahi: he Purakau Maori by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2001).
• Haere ki to Kuia Kainga by John Tarlton (Scholastic 2001).
• Katarina by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2001).
• Pipi Paopao by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2001).
• Tarau Poto o Papa Koroua by Joy Watson, illustrated by Wendy Hodder (Scholastic 2002).  
• Pakoro a Papa Koroua by Joy Watson illustrated by Wendy Hodder (Scholastic 2003).  
• I te Timatanga by Peter Gossage (Scholastic 2004).
• Kihi by Vicki Adams, illustrated by Kelvin Hawley (Scholastic 2004).
• Nama Tino Rahi Rawa Atu i te Whaiao by Julie Leibrich, illustrated by Ross Kinnaird  (Scholastic 2004).
• Teihi Tare by Elizabeth Pulford, illustrated by Denise Durkin (Scholastic 2004).
• Tarakihana Pakupaku by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2004).  
• Weta by Joy Cowley, photographs by Rod Morris Mataira (Scholastic 2004).  
• Hinepau by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2005).
• I Roto i te Ngahere by Yvonne Morrison, illustrated by Jenny Cooper (Scholastic 2005).
• Kia Heke te Po: Nga Kirehe Ngahere o Aotearoa by Julia Crouth (Scholastic 2005).
• Te Waka by Jean Prior, illustrated by Gavin Bishop (Scholastic 2005).
• Ko Wai Toku Ingoa? by Gillian May, illustrated by Geoff Dale (Scholastic 2005).
• Poti a Papa Koroua by Joy Watson, illustrated by Wendy Hodder (Scholastic 2006).
• Whakaeke i Nga Ngaru: E Wha Iino Purakau by Gavin Bishop (Random House 2006).
• Aha Kei Runga? photographs by Glenn Jowitt & Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira (Scholastic 2006).
• Horeta Me te Waka by Gordon Campbell, illustrated by Zak Waipara  (Scholastic 2007).
• Tiare by Sarah Eady, illustrated by Robert Farrier (Scholastic 2007).  
• Pukunoke by Pauline Cartwright, illustrated by Annabel Craighead (Scholastic 2007).
• Hinemoa te Toa by Tim Tipene, illustrated John Bennett (Scholastic 2008).
• Rapu Rāpeti by Elizabeth Pulford, illustrated by Jenny Cooper (Scholastic 2009).
• Hūhū Koroheke by Kyle Mewburn, illustrated by Rachel Driscoll (Scholastic 2009).

 Awards:

• White Ravens List 1994 for Cry-baby Moon.
• University of Waikato Honorary Doctorate 1996.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 1996 for Marama Tangiweto.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 1997 for He Tino Kuia Taku Kuia.
• University of Otago College of Education Writer in Residence 1997.
• Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit 1998.
• White Ravens List 2000 - Special Mention for Kapa Haka.
• Te Tohu Tiketike a Te Waka Toi/Te Waka Toi Exemplary Award 2001.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 2003 shortlist for Te Tarau Poto o Pāpā Koroua.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 2005 shortlist for Tarakihanā pakupaku.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 2005 shortlist for I te Timatangā.
• Storylines Notable Books List 2006 Picture Book list for Te Waka.
• Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award 2007.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 2007 shortlist for Whakaeke i ngā Ngaru.
• Te Kura Pounamu Medal 2009 shortlist for Hinemoa te Toa.
• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2010 Picture Book finalist for Hūhū Koroheke.
• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2010 Book of the Year for Hūhū Koroheke.