Maata Wharehoka is unravelling the past of Parihaka before it is forgotten.

She hosts a radio programme called the Nanny Maata Show on Access Radio in which she interviews people with links to Parihaka.

"It's focusing on the Maori women and getting them to tell their stories about themselves and about them growing up.

"We end off the show talking about Parihaka. I love listening to the stories that they tell about Parihaka because we'll never get it again.

"The show is only an hour long but I reckon it could go for two hours," she says with a warm laugh.

It has run, with stories in a mixture of English and Maori, for about two months.

She has always been interested in the stories told by the older folk and believes it is a privilege to get people to share their lives and experiences.

One of the common threads that comes out is the difficulties of the 1950s.

"I think the other thing that I try and get them to reveal is their understanding of what it was like way back then and what is now so they contrast the two eras."

One interviewee speaks about seeing a family member punished because she couldn't speak English.

Maata is excited about the prospect of what the show will offer this year. She's already planned interviews all around the mountain.

"At the end that's what I really want them to talk about; their memories of Parihaka when they were little. They describe this place as quite a different place to what it is now."

Maata is clearly passionate about her culture and Parihaka. She has been the marae caretaker for 25 years and welcomes guests with songs and speeches.

Te Whiri o Te Kokoa is a business she's fostered there. The idea is to attract groups and tourists to the coastal marae for a meal and to learn about its historical significance.

She also runs a traditional business working with dying people and their families called Kahu Whakatere Tupapakutanga.

"When people are dying and the whanau has chosen this process I enter the whanau circle and offer them what I believe is a process that works.

"We talk about dying and how we can teach and allow the person who's dying to depart without any lingering.

Maata believes that only when both the person dying and their families agree to let go will the dying person be at peace.

She is also in the process of writing a book about the meeting house at Parihaka called Te Niho O Te Atiawa.

"We want to write our own story of Parihaka. We don't want to read the historians or people who have researched it from their point of view."