- Secondary school is a time to
find yourself. If you have your culture - your identity - you can build off that.
|
- It really helps to have that tikanga, that
foundation to be able to apply to curricular and extra-curricular
opportunities.
|
- We have a strong sense of what it is to be
Māori within our school.
|
- College for me was learning my Māori
culture. I never grew up around my Māori side until I started college. I wasn’t allowed to do Māori or
anything when I was young.
|
- It’s using your culture as a tool to help
you succeed. It can help you succeed in whatever you’re doing. Just grab every
opportunity, don’t let it pass you by.
|
- I’ve learnt different aspects of Māori
culture and those different aspects have helped shape who I am as a person and
how I identify as Māori. So that for me is my biggest success, just finding who
I am.
|
- Knowing you’re Māori is having that extra
pride in yourself, having that mana.
|
- It’s realising who you are and where you
came from, and just carrying that through your schooling.
|
- Being in touch with your culture, but in a
way that means you’re enjoying it, and that success is you doing what you love, and being encouraged
to do what you’re passionate about.
|
- I’m really interested in history, but when
I look back and think of the inter-generational hardship our grandparents and our ancestors who are
Māori have had to deal with since the Treaty and the New Zealand wars, that inter-generational
cycle of hardship that they’ve had to overcome and endure, I think how lucky I am and how
lucky we are. We have the opportunity to take on different experiences and can go to school where there
are teachers who are supporting us. That we can be proud to experience our culture, rather
than being punished for it like our grandparents were so long ago. I think how
lucky we are to enjoy success as Māori, and for that success not only to be for ourselves, but for the collective, for our
whānau, for our village.
|
- Being down south, achieving as Māori is
empowering, as there are not as many Māori as up north. Achieving down here as Māori in
sports, culture and whatever we do, it gives us more empowerment to be Māori, when we are not
as exposed to our Māori culture as other regions of Aotearoa.
|
- One particular teacher, he was quite a big
influence on me. He made me feel proud to be Māori, he encouraged it. He just made people express
themselves more in that area. You’re expressing your Māori culture, and you’re being proud
of your culture. When you have that success and you show that you’re enjoying
yourself and enjoying your successes, that reflects back on to your culture.
|
- Being Māori, it’s a way people see you.
When I’ve travelled internationally to compete no one knows who I am, no one knows my culture. It’s
really cool to compete and show them where I come from. I come from a place that’s little. I don’t
have your big cities or multiple coaches around me. I can work off the little things and still make big
things out of it, especially by being Māori - just being able to show that my culture has defined who I am
and where I’m going in life.
|
- The first day we did introductions, it
felt great to stand up and say my mihimihi in Māori, especially knowing that I was the only one there from
my school. I felt a bit nervous, but I still had the guts to do it, and I felt great saying it. It was
just something I won’t forget. My parents were so proud of me.
|
- I don’t think it should be any different
achieving success as Māori as it is for other cultures, but it is. Because you have to be able to achieve - but
still be able to stay true to being Māori.
|
- You get those Māori out there that are top
of the top and they can go anywhere in life.
|
- You sort of have that pride. You know,
that mana, that you carry with you, because you know you’re bigger than something other than yourself.
|
- With the Māori culture, there’s something
that you can just own. You don’t have to be afraid to be yourself. Even though some Māori don’t do
kapa haka, some don’t do certain things, you still are Māori. You carry pride, you carry mana,
and you’re still part of something that is really cool.
|
- It was pretty incredible. We went around
Nelson and Marlborough to learn about our culture and our history. I think that
was really successful for every single one of us. We learnt all about the area
where we’re living and all about our own whānau. We made some awesome friends
and met a lot of Māori people who will tell you everything about the history to
help you along your journey.
|
- There’s been a lot more interest in Māori things.
Māori successes have really been acknowledged, like a lot, a lot more. And it makes you
feel really good.
|
- Our system has changed quite a bit. For
assemblies, at the beginning, the Māori Prefect goes up and does a karakia to
begin the assembly. That’s happened within the last three years, and there was
more interest in Māori culture after the Manu Kōrero was held at our school. It
was like, look at all these successful people. That opened our school up a lot
more to the Māori side of it, I guess. We can acknowledge them as well.
|
- Māori are such outgoing, proud and
confident people, and that reflects in us - in our sporting and academic and
our other achievements, knowing that we have the mana and the reo of a Māori
person.
|
- Succeeding as Māori just looks like being
Māori - you’re not afraid to be proud to be Māori. Walking down the corridors at our school, I’ll
strut my stuff as Māori. I’ll have the mean wiri (trembling hands) going
down the corridors and inspire other Māori students to succeed and push to
their limits - making them see themselves as more than what they think they
should be.
|
- Just be proud of who you are, and you
don’t need to hide that.
|
- Succeeding as Māori is having and using
Māori values and beliefs because they make up who we are - that’s being Māori. You don’t have
to physically look Māori or do things that people say are Māori, like kapa haka
or te reo, because you are Māori. It’s what’s inside you. I find all of those
beliefs help you succeed as Māori. They can also help others. Success is a lot
about what you do for other people.
|
- For me it’s being able to walk in both
worlds - te ao Pākehā me te ao Māori (the Pākehā world and the Māori world); being able to balance them both; being able to implement
them into your life; being able to recall the wisdom and tikanga (cultural customs and practices) of our tupuna (ancestors) who we should never forget. They made us. They are
us, and we are them.
|
- You have a key to both huarahi (pathways). You just
have an advantage, like a specialty. You just embrace your culture in both worlds, and
you can do everything that any other person can do. It’s awesome!
|
- Accepting the people around you, being
able to welcome both worlds. It’s very important, especially in a mainstream school.
|
- Being able to walk in te ao Māori me te ao
Pākehā. In essence, being able to be successful in the modern world but hold
steadfast to our culture, our traditions, our tikanga. I can be successful in
the modern world but also pupuri ki aku tikanga (hold on to our cultural customs and practices), and be humble. Above all, hold on to te reo Māori.
It’s what makes us unique. It’s what’s makes us Māori.
|
- Receiving the award this year was a big
thing. It was emotional having friends and family members standing up, doing the haka tautoko (performance in support) because that was unheard of in our school until the
past two years. Just having that made me feel proud and not so shy. It was so
good.
|
- When we have pride in being Māori and are
not whakamā, you can show that you can succeed. Still have the tikanga to be humble, but you can
say, “I’m proud to stand here as a Māori and receive this.
|
- I used to be pretty bad in Year 9 and 10,
but then when I joined kapa haka in Year 11, that changed me - changed who I
am. I’m a better person now. Matua kind of dropped me in the deep end, made me
step up and change. He just gave
me a lot of opportunities and he’s taught me a lot.
|
- I wasn’t really raised in a Māori way, so
joining kapa haka was finding out more about my culture and learning about
myself. That’s success for me.
|
- For me, just passing was a big thing, I
was on top of the world. Maybe next year I can endorse with Merit or
Excellence.
|
- It’s knowing who you are and being able to
introduce yourself, your Māori heritage. Being proud of being Māori, being OK
with yourself. You can be Māori and be an achiever. Being Māori is just
amazing.
|
- Success all comes from just being who you
are. Everything all comes together, and if you are proud to be who you are, then everything else
comes flowing through. So embracing being Māori is very important for me personally, and it helps
a lot to know that you’ve got everyone behind you - your iwi, your friends,
everyone like that.
|
- People never thought that I was Māori.
They just thought I was a typical white boy, and I was like: “No, it’s just I’m
a white Māori.” And it was like: “Oh that’s not a real Māori.” Well it is to
me.
|
- It’s achieving academically, in sports,
and in a range of different areas - but still holding on to your culture and
who you are as Māori, and what it means to be Māori.
|
- Culture’s important going through
education. Culture just brings it all back home.
|
- We have a culture to be proud of. Kapa
haka is amazing. It makes your blood boil. It makes your eyes open. It’s just amazing.
|
- What makes me proud to be Māori is that I
can connect myself to the land and to the environment around me. That spiritual
connection helps me push forward in my education and embrace it.
|
- The learning of kapa haka, of environment,
of nature; connect it to Māori and release it to the generations. That’s the
bigger picture that I see for the future in my life and that’s what makes me
proud.
|
- There’s a huge drive on excellence, but
there’s also a huge drive on keeping your culture alive – making it known to
you and to everybody else, that you are Māori and you’re proud to be Māori.
|
- I’m a white boy. People don’t expect me to
be Māori, but I consider myself Māori. It’s not the colour of my skin, it’s my
ancestors. So that’s who I follow and who I want to make happy.
|
- For me, I guess it’s important having an
understanding of tikanga Māori, having an understanding of te reo Māori, and
knowing yourself through your identity as Māori. I think that’s very important
- being able to express to others and portray that you are succeeding, but you
are succeeding as a Māori student.
|
- We were asked to do a haka to show all the
other countries some of our culture. It was an honour being able to show people who had never
seen a haka. Doing it for them and giving them a real New Zealand Māori feel of what haka is about.
|
- All the teachers, instead of just saying:
“Stand up!”, they’ll say: “E tu!”. And instead of saying: “Sit down!”, they’ll say: “E noho!”. And
they’re using those small Māori sentences and scenarios to be able to make the classroom a friendlier
environment for Māori students.
|