Nau mai, nau mai haere mai!

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 and 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'.

Her latest writing project is a three-volume novel called Te Tai o Marokura. Written in te reo Māori, the novel records the impact of Ngāti Toa warrior chief Te Rauparaha's invasion of Te Waipounamu (South Island). The idea for the novel developed while Katerina was touring the South Island in the early nineties with her husband, Junior Mataira.

‘Whenever I go into a new area I head straight to the library,' Katerina says. ‘I was fascinated by the history of the early people in the South Island. The more I moved around, the more I learned and the more intrigued I became.'

Katerina was moved by the plight of the survivors - particularly the Māori women, children and the elderly, who fled to the bush in fear of their lives. ‘Historical records tend to focus on the activity of rangatira (chief),' she says. ‘But this book is about ordinary people.'

Set between 1828 and 1837, the novel's main characters are young teenagers who face many challenges as the story unfolds. Katerina was keen to target a young adult audience and to highlight the futility of violence.