Whai Ngata

Whai Ngata is the son of Auckland University Māori lecturer Hori Ngata. After completing teacher's training college in Auckland, Whai spent time working at housing body the State Advances Corporation, in public relations, and on the family farm in Ruatoria. 

In 1968 he joined the Auckland Star as a journalist, partly out of a desire to cover Māori issues. At the time Māori journalists were few and far between, and te reo was rarely taught at primary schools. Ngata spent three years at the Star, then went freelance.  

After a period editing industry-related magazines, Ngata joined Radio New Zealand in June 1975, the year before radio and television split into separate operations.

Over his seven years at RNZ, he travelled extensively around New Zealand, working on a range of Māori programming. Ngata covered the 1975 Land March led by Dame Whina Cooper, the 1978 Bastion Point evictions, and made an award-winning documentary on the 28th Māori Battalion.  

In 1983 Ngata moved to Television New Zealand. He would be at the organisation for another 25 years, rising to become General Manager of Māori Programming. 

Ngata began by covering Māori stories for the Network News, and working in a range of roles on long-running Māori-language news bulletin Te Karere, which had launched the previous year. Ngata travelled to America to cover the touring Te Māori Exhibition.

At the end of 1986 Ernie Leonard recruited Ngata to help establish TVNZ's Māori department. Ngata became deputy head under Leonard. The position saw him working on programmes from all angles - from funding and producing, to iwi liaison and broadcasts from Waitangi. (Ngata estimates he has covered "30-plus" Waitangi celebrations).

He also created and produced more than 800 episodes of Waka Huia. Presented completely in te reo Māori, the programme was intended as a snapshot of Māori history and customs. 

In 1994 Ngata became Head of Māori Programmes, overseeing funding proposals, production budgets and staffing of programmes for Māori and Pacific Island people. As well as his continuing involvement in Te Karere, Waka Huia, and Marae, he was an associate producer on Jamie Belich's The New Zealand Wars, and youth television shows Mai Time and Tikitiki. 

Ngata was often the person sent to negotiate on behalf of TVNZ, so that the organisation could provide coverage of many important Māori hui and events - including the tangi of Dame Whina Cooper, and The Māori Queen. He was also collaborating with Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Māori content for the Japanese market, and visiting China to work on programmes for Marae and Te Karere about former race relations conciliator Hiwi Tauroa.

In 2007, the year before he retired from TVNZ, Ngata became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting and television. 

In the 90s Whai Ngata spent four years working on the English-Māori dictionary begun by his late father Hori Ngata, eldest grandson of legendary politician and scholar Sir Apirana Ngata. At the 1994 Montana Book Awards, the H.M. Ngata dictionary won the Best Non-Fiction Award. Ngata is now compiling a second edition.