Matapehi

About the Author

Te Kaitito / Playwright

He kaitito whakaari, he kaitito toikupu, he kaiwhakaari a William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Ko ia te kaituhi kawenga nui katoa ki te reo Ingarihi, tata ana te whakawhitihia o ana whakaari ki ngā reo katoa me te kaha ake i ētahi atu kaitito whakaari te whakaaritia ki te kura, ki te atamira. I te takiwā o 1606 kua whakaaritia tuatahitia a Matapēhi.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was a playwright, poet and actor. He is considered the most influential writer in the English language: his plays have been translated into almost every language and are performed in schools and theatres more often than any other playwright. Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first performed around 1606.

Te Kaiwhakamāori / Translator

I whānau mai a Te Haumihiata Mason (Tūhoe, Ngāti Pango, Te Arawa) ki ngā pāpāringa o Tauranga Moana, ka whakatipuhia ki te whārua o Ruatoki i roto o Tūhoe. Ko te reo Māori te reo o te hapori katoa i tōna tamarikitanga, i pono ai tōna ngākau ki te reo Māori. He wā hoki tērā i ora ai te whārua i ōna whenua, i ōna ngahere me ōna awa, me te aha, whakatōkia ana ki roto ki a Te Haumihiata te aroha ki te reo, ki ngā tini a Tāne, a Tangaroa, me te hiahia tonu ki te whakatipu i ngā momo mea katoa. Ka whakahaungia e Tīmoti Kāretu kia haere ia ki te whare wānanga i ōna tau 30, nāwai ā, ka noho ia hei kaiako i te Tari Māori o Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. Nō muri ka haere ia ki Te Taura Whiri, ka noho hei Kaitiaki Reo mō te motu. Ko tana pukapuka Te Rātaka a Tētahi Kōhine, tana whakamāoritanga o te Diary of a Young Girl a Anne Frank, i tohaina ki ngā kura o Aotearoa i te 2019. I whakaputaina tana whakamāoritanga o tā Hakipia whakaari, o Rōmeo rāua ko Hurieta, e Auckland University Press i te 2023.

Born by the sea in Tauranga Moana and raised in Ruatoki in the nation of Tūhoe, Te Haumihiata Mason (Tūhoe, Ngāti Pango, Te Arawa) has spent a lifetime devoted to te reo Māori. Her formative years were spent in a monolingual Māori language community at a time when most of the food on the table was sourced from the land, bush and river. Growing up in this environment instilled in Te Haumihiata a passion for te reo Māori, a love of native flora and fauna and a compulsion for growing things. Persuaded by Tīmoti Kāretu to attend university in her 30s, Te Haumihiata went on to become a lecturer at Waikato University and then worked for many years at Te Taura Whiri, eventually becoming Kaitiaki Reo and a national authority on the language. Her book Te Rātaka a Tētahi Kōhine, a translation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, was distributed to schools across Aotearoa in 2019. Te Haumihiata’s translation of Romeo and Juliet, Rōmeo rāua ko Hurieta, was published by Auckland University Press in 2023.