Matai Smith (Kaiako)
After a very positive and successful Mäori Language Week in 2007, Mätai Smith stayed on as our resident Good Morning kaiako/teacher and celebrates his sixth year with the show in 2012.
Every week sees Mätai teaching new vocabulary, basic sentence constructions, handy expressions as well as explaining certain tikanga Mäori - or Mäori protocols or customs - along with a few good ol' Mäori waiata (songs) thrown in for good measure as well!
Mätai grew up in Gisborne before moving to Auckland and has worked in television for 16 years. He started with TV ONE's Marae, before moving into children's television as a presenter on the ground breaking one hundred per cent Maori language children's show Pükana .
He then spent nine and a half years presenting and also eventually producing this award winning show.
In 2005, 2006 and 2007 Mätai scored a hat trick winning the award for Best Te Reo Mäori Male TV Presenter at the annual Mäori Media Awards.
Mätai says, "Im so humbled to be a part of this show and more so by the fact that I get to teach Te Reo Maori in a weekly segment. While some may see it as a mere segment filler, to me it's much more than that! I wholeheartedly believe it's helping to make a huge contribution towards the revitalisation and normalisation of te reo here in Aotearoa. I'm really looking forward to teaching my new students Rod and Jeanette and hopefully our viewers will continue to enjoy it's 'edutainment' value as well in 2012."
Anyone with a pätai (question) for Mätai can email him at goodmorning@tvnz.co.nz
