{"id":441109,"date":"2026-05-23T04:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/441109\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T04:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:45:18","slug":"ngati-porou-leader-ta-tamati-reedy-dies-aged-89-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/441109\/","title":{"rendered":"Ng\u0101ti Porou leader T\u0101 Tamati Reedy dies aged 89"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4PBQEN5_1M1A9348-2_9816.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"656\" alt=\"Sir Tamati Reedy at The Waitangi Tribunal is hearing arguments on whether it should hold an urgent inquiry into the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\n<p>Photo: RNZ \/ Alexander Robertson\n<\/p>\n<p>Ng\u0101ti Porou leader, renowned academic and language advocate T\u0101 (Sir) Tamati Reedy has died aged 89.<\/p>\n<p>T\u0101 Tamati was born in Ruatoria in 1936 and of Ng\u0101ti Porou descent.<\/p>\n<p>He began his career as a teacher in primary and secondary schools, and later completed a masters degree and a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Hawai&#8217;i, specialising in te reo M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p>T\u0101 Tamati, a Fullbright scholar, was an associate professor at the University of Alabama from 1982 &#8211; 83, and was the secretary of the M\u0101ori Affairs Department from 1983 to 1989. He held the role during the establishment of the M\u0101ori Language Act in 1987 which led to Te Reo becoming an official language.<\/p>\n<p>He was heavily involved in the development of k\u014dhanga reo and M\u0101ori immersion education, contributing to the creation of Te Wh\u0101riki, New Zealand&#8217;s first national early childhood curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>In 1996 he became the founding dean and professor of the School of M\u0101ori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato, and served as the university&#8217;s first pro vice-chancellor M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, T\u0101 Tamati was made an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/28406\/dr-reedy-made-emeritus-professor-by-waikato-university\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">emeritus professor by Waikato University<\/a>. At the time, the University said Reedy helped create a distinct M\u0101ori presence in the institution and strengthened its relationships with M\u0101ori, which included staff, students, the community, hap\u016b, and iwi.<\/p>\n<p>The same year he was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4M96T46_copyright_image_265884.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"703\" alt=\"Investiture of Tamati Reedy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nT\u0101 Tamati Reedy was knighted in 2011.<br \/>\nPhoto: TeAra\n<\/p>\n<p>Outside of the classroom, T\u0101 Tamati was a talented rugby player, and he represented the M\u0101ori All Blacks on their 1960 Pacific tour, and he played provincial rugby for Poverty Bay-East Coast and Thames Valley.<\/p>\n<p>T\u0101 Tamati was knighted for his services to education in 2011.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: RNZ \/ Alexander Robertson Ng\u0101ti Porou leader, renowned academic and language advocate T\u0101 (Sir) Tamati Reedy has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-441109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}