Having Māori culture and values celebrated at school

We have teachers who have come from England and from other countries who have no te reo Māori. They learn te reo Māori and try to understand it. I can help them. That’s important for me because it shows that they have motivation, they have a passion to understand students at a deeper level. It shows me that they take into consideration my culture and who I am as a person, as a Māori person. It shows that they appreciate that as well.

One of the good things that the teachers at school do is - there’s a teachers’ kapa haka group, and that really shows in class work. Teachers are doing karakia; they’re able to pronounce Māori names properly. Because, not being able to have a teacher pronounce your name properly is quite irritating. A lot of the teachers do try and are working hard to interact with Māori students.

She does karakia in the morning and when we leave, so that she can impact Māori on all other students in our class. She was from South Africa.

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