Tamati Muturangi Reedy

Tamati Reedy grew up in the home of his maternal grandparents, Heneriata and Hirini Haig, up the Maraehara River Valley on the East Coast. He was educated at Hiruharama Native School and Manutahi Māori District High School, Ruatoria, and was Dux of the school in 1953. In 1956 Tamati was awarded the Most Outstanding Regimental Recruit D Rifle Company 23 in the Compulsory Military Training Intake. From 1956-1969 he was a secondary and primary school teacher. He was a member of the New Zealand Māori All Blacks who toured the Pacific Islands in 1960. Tamati studied at the University of Auckland and graduated with a B.A. in 1968 and an M.A. (Hons) in English in 1972. From 1970-1973 he was a Senior Lecturer at the Auckland Secondary Teachers’ College. In 1972 Tamati was awarded the Māori Man of the Year - Sir Jack Butland Award. From 1975-1978 he graduated with a PhD and an M.A. from the University of Hawaii and wrote a thesis entitled "Complex Sentence Formation in Māori". From 1982-83 Tamati was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Alabama and was an Associate Professor at the university. He taught an anthropology course entitled "Peoples of the Pacific" and courses in linguistics. From 1973-1982 he worked in the Department of Māori Affairs and Department of Education in programme developments and administration. From 1983-1989 he was Chief Executive and Secretary of Māori Affairs. During this time, he lectured on current and historical Māori developments in New Zealand and at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, University of Alabama, Field Museum in Chicago, East West Centre in Hawaii and at the Institute of International Studies in Beijing. Tamati was a Māori Congress member who appealed to the UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate the legislation to formalise the Sealord agreement. He was a founding Board Member of Te Kohanga Reo Trust Incorporated from Tamati was a Board Member of Australia-New Zealand Centennial Oral History Awards Committee in 1990 and in the same year received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Award. From 1990 to January 1996 he managed Reedy Holdings Limited which focuses on education and training. From 1990-92 Tamati conducted research and development work for the Ministry of Education on new Māori initiatives for education, Kura Kaupapa Māori and Te Kohanga Reo National Trust. He provided a Māori perspective to developing Te Whariki, the National Guidelines for Early Childhood Education from In 1996 he was appointed Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato. Tamati was government representative to the United Nations at the 1989 ILO conference, Geneva, on Indigenous Peoples Rights. From 1983-1989 he was a Board Member of the Māori Education Foundation. Tamati was chair of the Te Māori Art Exhibition in the USA and New Zealand from In October 1997 he chaired the Conference for Māori & Pacific Development at Waikato University’s "Strategies for the Next Decade."

Biographical sources

• Correspondence with Tamati Reedy, 24 Feb. 1998.
• Tu Tangata 13 (1983): 16.