Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira DNZM (13 November 1932 – 16 July 2011) was a New Zealand Māori language proponent, educator, intellectual, artist and writer.
[5] Mataira and a friend, fellow teacher Ngoi Pēwhairangi, co-founded the Te Ataarangi programme as a way to teach and revitalize the Māori language.
[6] Her efforts earned her the nickname of the "mother" of the Kura Kaupapa Māori, according to Dr Pita Sharples.
[5] In the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, Mataira was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the Māori language.
[8] One month before her death, she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, also for services to the Māori language, in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.
[10] In 2009 UNESCO awarded her the Linguapax Award which is ‘an international honour which recognises the preservation and promotion of mother languages as essential vehicles of identity and cultural expression.’[5] In 2017, Mataira was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.