A lifetime of work in the education field was rewarded when Emeritus Professor Tamati Muturangi Reedy was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) in the New Year’s Honours list.

In fact Sir Tamati has had a distinguished career not only in education but also in Māori Affairs in the public and private sectors and in academia. He has also been active in his time away from work as a sportsman. He’s a former Māori All Black and provincial rugby player, a marathoner and tennis player. He continues to play tennis to this day.

Sir Tamati is a former senior Māori public servant being Secretary of the Department of Māori Affairs for six years from 1983 to 1989.

He has an MA in English from Auckland University and an MA and then a Doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Hawaii.

Sir Tamati has worked as an Associate Professor in America at the University of Alabama.

In 1996 Sir Tamati was appointed the first Dean and Professor of the School of Māori and Pacific Development at Waikato University. He was also Pro-vice Chancellor for Māori Development at Waikato; and in 2005 was appointed professor of Māori Sustainable Enterprise at the university’s Management School.

In 2009 he became the first Māori to be named Professor Emeritus – retired from his assigned duties - by the university.

But his retirement wasn’t for very long, in April last year he was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal. Later he was also appointed the chair of the Ministerial Review Group established to review the Māori language sector and strategy.

Sir Tamati and his wife Tilly Lady Reedy both have Ngāti Porou whakapapa and have worked closely together most of their adult lives. For a time they ran their own consultancy business providing advice to the public and private sectors.

They have both contributed to the culture of Ngāti Porou. It was while he was teaching in Alabama that Sir Tamati came up with the idea that has led to the annual Ngata Memorial lectures in which Ngāti Porou are able to learn about their tribal tikanga and history.

Sir Tamati and Lady Reedy have a fairly big personal stake in Ngāti Porou too. They have eight children, 13 grandchildren and so far 23 great-grandchildren.