Pānia Papa

Pānia (Ngāti Korokī-Kahukura, Ngāti Mahuta) has supported revitalisation of te reo Māori as an award-winning television presenter, Māori language consultant, curriculum and resource designer, translator, and editor for the broadcasting industry and education sector. Pānia lectured in Māori Studies at Waikato University for 10 years and was a tutor of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo (Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language) from 2004 until 2019. She has been a director of Takatū Associates since 2000, focusing on innovations in Māori language education and broadcasting. She presented and wrote the te reo Māori educational shows ‘Ako’ from 2010 and ‘Ōpaki’ from 2016 on Māori Television and has produced Māori versions of cartoons such as ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ and ‘Dora the Explorer’.

She was a panel member reviewing New Zealand’s Māori Language Strategy in 2011 and the group that oversaw translation of the Māori Language Act 2016. Pānia was on the Waikato-Tainui Reo Advisory Group, working to implement the Waikato-Tainui language strategy, and has helped develop language strategies for other iwi including Ngāti Korokī-Kahukura. She has translated 12 children’s books into te reo, composed more than 40 waiata and authored the children’s lullaby anthology ‘Pita Mata’. Pānia is currently one of three teachers of Te Tohu Paerua o Te Reo Kairangi – Master of Māori Language Excellence at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. A founding Trustee of Kotahi Rau Pukapuka, Pānia now works as the Trust’s Pou Reo.