Hēmi Kelly (Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Tahu–Ngāti Whāoa) started learning te reo Māori as a young teenager and naturally progressed into teaching roles after study. Hēmi is a full-time lecturer in te reo Māori at the Auckland University of Technology. His academic research and writing focus on the revitalisation of the Māori language and translation studies.
Hēmi is a licensed translator and graduate of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo (The Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language). He is also involved in Māori language planning and revitalisation initiatives in a number of organisations, including his own tribal communities. In 2017, Hēmi translated Witi Ihimaera’s novella Sleeps Standing, and he published his first book A Māori Word a Day in 2018. In 2019, Hēmi published his first creative writing piece in English in Pūrākau, a collection of Māori myths retold by Māori writers and his second book A Māori Phrase a Day in 2020.
