New Year Honours 2022: Whale Rider star Rāwiri Paratene honoured for 50 years of advocacy for Māori in film

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori, film and theatre

Kiwis – and the world – know him best as Koro from Whale Rider.

Now actor, director, and writer Rāwiri Paratene ONZM (Ngā Puhi, Te Rarawa) has been made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for 2022.

The 67-year-old Shortland Street and Footrot Flats star, also known as Peter David Broughton, has been a stalwart of Aotearoa's film industry for more than five decades.

It's not the first time Paratene has been recognised on the Queen's New Year Honours list for his work – in 2013, he was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

It comes after his most recent performance Peter Paka Paratene, a play on his English and Māori names, at Auckland's Te Pou Theatre. The theatre show, which he's said will be his last act, explores his career over the years through music, poetry, spoken word and audience questions.

The show marked an emotional return to performing for the veteran actor after three strokes in succession left him struggling with his speech.

Paratene suffered the first stroke in 2018 and while he's thankful to be alive, he was left with aphasia, which delays the neural pathways between the brain and speech.

It took him some time to recover his words, but he didn't let that stop him from returning to the stage.

It's a triumphant note to go out on for an actor whose career has spanned five decades. Paratene went from becoming the first Māori actor to graduate from Wellington's Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 1972 to touring the world for two years performing in a Globe Theatre production of Hamlet.

Paratene has led the way for countless Māori actors who have since made names for themselves in the industry. He's helped open doors for Māori not just in film but in New Zealand society in general - his appointment as a CNZM also recognises his tireless campaigning for the use of te reo Māori.

He founded the Wellington branch of the Ngā Tamatoa activist movement for the teaching of Māori in schools in the 1970s - it's largely thanks to him that te reo returned to New Zealand schools. His campaigns also led to the establishment of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week).

Paratene also directed on language learning shows Kōrero Mai and Whānau and is a trustee of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium and of Te Paepae Ataata, funding the development of Māori cinema.

While he may be stepping down from acting, Paratene isn't content to simply rest on his laurels. His next project? Going back to university to complete his master's degree in performing arts, English and history. After 67 years, he doesn't want to stop learning.