Tīmoti Kāretu
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29 April 1937
Sir Tīmoti Kāretu | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kāretu in 2017 | |
| Born | Tīmoti Samuel Kāretu 29 April 1937 Hastings, New Zealand |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Māori language and performing arts |
| Institutions | University of Waikato |
Sir Tīmoti Samuel Kāretu KNZM QSO CRSNZ (born 29 April 1937)[1] is a New Zealand academic of Māori language and performing arts.[2] He served as the inaugural head of the Department of Māori at the University of Waikato, and rose to the rank of professor.[2] He was the first Māori language commissioner, between 1987 and 1999, and then was executive director of Te Kohanga Reo National Trust from 1993 until 2003.[3] In 2003, he was closely involved in the foundation of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo, the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language, and served as its executive director.[3] He is fluent in Māori, English, French and German.
Kāretu was born in Hastings.[1] He was adopted at the age of two months in a whāngai adoption by his great uncle Tame Kāretu and Mauwhare Taiwera.[4] His biological mother gave birth to him when she was 17, and died of tuberculosis at the age of 22.[5] He was raised at Waikaremoana, Waimārama and Ruatāhuna, and affiliates to Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngāti Kahungunu.[5] His biological father was Ngāti Pāhauwera, and they had minimal contact.
As a student, Kāretu won a scholarship to Wellington College, where he boarded, and learnt French and German.[5][6] After leaving school, he moved to Taumarunui, and taught French and German at Taumaranui High School as well as Māori-language night classes for lawyers. In 1961, he moved to London to work for the New Zealand High Commission, where he served as the chief information officer, and made frequent trips to Brussels to work as a German and French interpreter.[5]
Kāretu forged many inter-iwi connections in London, and helped found the cultural group Ngāti Rānana with Louie Tāwhai from Te Arawa, Winnie Waapu from Ngāti Kahungunu, Margaret Smith from Ngāpuhi, Margaret Paiki from Aotea, Ben Wanoa from Ngāti Porou and Norma Mōrehu from Ngāti Raukawa. He returned to New Zealand in 1969 and taught secondary-school French and German once again—this time at Fairfield College in Hamilton—before taking up academic work in 1972 at the University of Waikato.[5]
In 1987, Kāretu was appointed as the inaugural commissioner for the newly-established Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori alongside Tā Kingi Matutaera Īhaka, Koro Wetere, Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira, Ānita Moke and Ray Harlow[7].
In 2004, Kāretu, along with Te Wharehuia Milroy and Pou Temara established Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo Māori- The Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language. This ran until 2019[8].
