Dr Karyn Paringatai is a lecturer at Te Tumu - Otago University's School of Maori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, and the winner of the 2014 Prime Minister's Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence. The award recognises Dr Paringatai's 12 years of teaching students from a wide variety of backgrounds to become a whanau of champions for the revitalisation of te reo Maori, in both language and the performing arts. She explains how she incorporates traditional practices, such as "teaching in the dark" into her tutorials, and how they help learning, as well as her extraordinary efforts in providing pastoral care that will help her students feel more comfortable at university.