Mrs Āni Pātene Gazala Wainui, JP, has been named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori language education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list unveiled today.

Mrs Wainui has contributed 55 years to teaching te reo Māori to students in both mainstream and kura kaupapa Māori schools. 

When asked about how she felt about receiving the award she said she was very humbled as, in her eyes, she was "just doing her job". 

Born in Cape Runaway, she moved to Southland in 1965.

"My husband and I came for a holiday and we forgot to go home."

Mrs Wainui was the first Itinerant Teacher of Māori in Southland, promoting and encouraging the introduction of Māori language in mainstream primary schools in the 1970s.

She taught Māori at Cargill High School in Invercargill, until 1989.

She then formed the second kura kaupapa Māori in the South Island, a kura kaupapa Māori based at Murihiku Marae, after being inspired to start one of her own after she saw kura kaupapa Māori in action in Hamilton. 

Kura kaupapa Māori are Māori-language immersion schools where the philosophy and teachings aim to revitalise Māori language, knowledge and culture.

"I went to a bilingual course in Hamilton and that's where I saw a kura kaupapa Māori. Before that, I'd never heard of them before or knew that they existed."

"I felt quite excited that it could become the vision for Māori children in Southland because I knew a lot of families who wanted to try something different in education."

Mrs Wainui felt strongly that Māori students should be able to go to a school that connected them to their culture and language. 

She had four children who had already gone through the mainstream education system and said, while they were successful, they missed out on fully learning te reo Maori and Maori culture. 

So, with her youngest child Kate, she decided she would do something about it. She set up the southern-most kura kaupapa Māori in New Zealand, Te Wharekura o Arowhenua.

"I wanted her to grow up in the language knowing who she was."

"Its [My] proudest moment," she said. "The little girl that I set up the kura up for, my youngest daughter Kate."

But she said starting something so new and out of the ordinary in Southland was not easy. 

“All the lessons were done in te reo... not many Maori at the time actually supported us, they thought it was a crazy idea," she said. 

Te Wharekura o Arowhenua was formally recognised by the Ministry of Education in 1991 but before then Mrs Wainui said the school effectively operated "illegally" for just over a year.

She and several other parents took their children out of school and started the kura themselves, despite resistance from the community and Ministry of Education. 

She said the support of two local Kaumātua at the time – George Te Au and Robert Whaitiri – and her whanau helped her hugely with setting up the kura.

"We had maybe 10 students in the beginning and then we had 20 to 30 by the time we achieved government recognition in 1991."

She was the principal of Te Wharekura o Arowhenua for 28 years until retiring from the position three years ago. 

She oversaw growth in the roll from 35 students at inception to 160 students at the time of her retirement.

She said that, although she was supposed to be retired, she still taught within the kura as a specialist teacher and worked with teachers to train them on how to teach te reo Maori. 

She has been chairperson of Te Runanga Nui o nga Kura Kaupapa Māori Te Aho Matua o Aotearoa, the national body representing Te Aho Matua Kura Kaupapa Māori, and has been a member of its board since 1993. 

Mrs Wainui said that after all these years of teaching at the kura, her dream was still the same: "the kids go out with confidence, becoming good people with good manners, and are proud of being Maori".

What she learnt from her proudest achievement was not to listen to naysayers and be comfortable with taking risks to accomplish what you believed in, she said.

"Surround yourself with a support network of people as many might see as 'crazy or too out there' and be passionate and do whatever you need to do to succeed... you live that dream and you fight for that dream," she said.

Mrs Wainui is also an Archdeacon in the Anglican Church, Te Huiamorangi o Te Waipounamu.