Far North students inspired by first te reo Māori career immersion workshop

“Ko te manu kai i te mātauranga nōna te ao – the bird that eats knowledge, his is the world,” Tepania said.

More than 22,000 students nationally have attended the 300-plus Tertiary Education Commission’s Inspiring the Future Aotearoa career workshops since they launched in 2019.

But the events at Ngāhwa Innovation Park’s Mahinga center were a national first, with the workshops delivered entirely in te reo Māori.

Inspiring the future Aotearoa challenges stereotypes that can limit young people’s potential by introducing them to role models from the working world.

Tepania said Friday’s hui was about providing students with an education while they are in school, rather than the later-stage approach of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs, which was more at the bottom of the abyss for students, in fact after they left school.

He is one of twelve mayors in the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs government group at the national level.

Tepania said it was great that the country’s first full immersion Māori Inspiring the Future workshops were taking place in the Far North.

He told the students that it was important to work toward getting a well-paying job because it would bring benefits, including the ability to support their families.

Tepania is a former te reo Māori teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe, one of two schools that attended the hui along with Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hokianga from near Ōpononi.

He is currently doing some work at the Kaikohe Kura.

Tepania said the full te reo Māori immersion model would also have applications in other parts of New Zealand.

Other regions were already looking at Friday’s events with the intention of setting up a workshop locally.

Eastern Bay of Plenty Te Kura o te Pāroa tumuaki (director) Eryn Te Pou attended the workshop at Kaikohe before looking to bring the workshops to her local Kura.

Pou drove more than 500km north of Whakatāne to attend the first te reo Māori hui of its kind.

The Far North hui was aimed at high school students.

However, Pou, who is a tumuaki at the basic kura level, said she wanted to introduce the concept earlier to her local students.

She said there were three local kuras in the eastern Bay of Plenty that she hoped would be part of a follow-up house in Whakatāne.

Inspiring the future Aotearoa workshops for students are suitable for all levels of education, from primary to secondary.

Te Pou said it was good to see the hui at Kaikohe unfold and that she liked the presence of cultural career role models.

Half a dozen Māori professionals from a wide range of careers were on a panel. The career role models came from all over Northland and as far away as Wellington to take part.

The panel included a mental health nurse, a grammar school manager, a Māori relationship counselor and a former New Zealand Army peacekeeper.

Panelists were questioned by students whose job was to try to guess their profession.

Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hokianga student Isaiah Ngawharau from Ōpononi said the hui he attended had been worthwhile in highlighting employment opportunities after leaving school.

The workshop provided an opportunity to learn more about different career options, rather than simply becoming a person stuck at home glued to devices, Ngawharau said.

Nationally, approximately 8,000 students have completed the Inspiring the Future program so far this year.

■ LDR is local journalism, co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.