MĀRATA KETEKIRI TAMAIRA
WRITER
Growing good words in the world
Ruia mai, ruia mai!
Ko Pihanga te maunga whaea.
Pihanga is my mother mountain.
Ko Taupo te moana.
Taupo is my lake.
Ko Te Arawa te waka.
Te Arawa is my ancestral canoe.
Ko Tūwharetoa i te Aupouri rāua ko Te Mahau ōku marae.
Tūwharetoa i te Aupouri and Te Mahau are my ceremonial meeting houses.
Photo by Makana Middlesworth.
Ko Ngāti Tūwharetoa te iwi.
Ngāti Tūwharetoa is my tribe.
Ko Ngāti Turumakina rāua ko Ngāti Tūrangitukua ōku hapū.
Ngāti Turumakina and Ngāti Tūrangitukua are my subtribes.
Ko Te Rerehau Kahotea Te Heuheu te rangatira.
Te Rerehau Kahotea Te Heuheu is my esteemed protector.
Ko Mārata taku ingoa.
My name is Mārata.
Poipoia te kākano, kia puawai
Nurture the seed and it will grow
Words emerge from the ground like newly sprouted seeds
reaching tender leaves to the sky seeking sustenance.
They rise beyond their own earthbound humility to be nourished by the sun and rain.
Words want to grow.
Nau mai, haere mai! Welcome!
Mārata Ketekiri Tamaira is originally from Aotearoa New Zealand and is proudly affiliated with Ngāti Tūwharetoa, a tribe located in the central North Island. She earned her Master’s degree in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of Hawai‘i in 2009, and went on to complete a PhD in gender, media, and cultural studies at the Australian National University in 2015. Her academic pursuits span a diverse range of fields, including Indigenous politics and art, visual culture, and museum studies.
An interdisciplinary scholar, Mārata’s work has appeared in a variety of academic journals, edited volumes, and periodicals. In 2009, she edited The Space Between: Negotiating Culture, Place, and Identity in the Pacific. In addition to her scholarly output, Mārata is also a poet. Her poem "Night Ceremony" was published in Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly in 2016. As an experienced educator, she has taught Pacific studies and Indigenous visual studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and the University of California, Santa Cruz. A central tenet of her teaching philosophy is the support and empowerment of underrepresented minority students throughout their academic journeys. Her speaking engagements span a wide range of topics and audiences, including a 2016 invitation to Harvard University, where she was a guest speaker for the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
In 2022, Mārata stepped away from her role as Project Manager for the National Science Foundation–funded STEM initiative Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation: Islands of Opportunity to focus on creative writing. In 2023, she completed her debut children’s picture book, Mother Tree, Daughter Seed: Lessons in Slow Growth, which is scheduled for release by the University of Hawai‘i Press in October 2025. She is currently working on her first Young Adult novel.
Mārata’s creative work draws deeply from her Māori heritage, exploring ancestral connections, the significance of place and memory, and the evolving journey toward identity and belonging. She believes strongly in the importance of storytelling from an Indigenous perspective, affirming, “As Indigenous people, we need to be the light bearers of our own stories.”
She resides on Hawai‘i Island with her husband and daughter.
Forthcoming release