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.

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.

[10] In 2020 he was honoured with the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in the non-fiction category[11] and was elected a Companion of Royal Society Te Apārangi.