- A lot of people think being Māori is
trying to work against something. But if you’re Māori, you’re working with your whole culture. You have
your ancestors, your family, they’re all behind you. Being Māori is something that will support
you, not something that you have to fight against.
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- To be successful is not to conform to the
negative stereotype that we all know is there with being a Māori student. Being successful, it’s
not just academically or physically but it’s also the respect you get from the
teachers and friends.
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- My older brother he sort of slacked off
with school, and he knows it. He talks to me and he always says, “Don’t be like
me”. He always pushes me to make sure I know where I am going. And like, I’m
not trying to sound sad, but I don’t want to do what he did.
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- A lot of Māori do have talent, I can see
it in my cousins and all my family, but they just don’t bring it out to the table. You need to put your
results on the table. Don’t be shy. You need to be proud of who you are as a
Māori - show your talents to the people.
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- I think it’s more about pride - showing
the way for the rest of the family and for the rest of us as Māori. We just make
the path bigger, not longer. And I reckon, being the oldest, I have to show my
brothers and my cousins and my extended family that they can be more than what
they are.
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- The Māori pass rate for NCEA has lifted in
our school. It is lifting every year and I think the word that’s been thrown
around is pride, and I do carry a lot of pride in seeing that I was part of
that stat.
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- Breaking that stereotype and those
assumptions that are put on us as Māori. I don’t think success for us is just academic. It’s finding who
we are and being happy with our well-being, and being able to confidently walk with te ao Māori and te
ao Pākehā. (the Māori and Pākehā worlds). And showing them that we can do just as good as
they can, and better.
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- When all of us Māori kids can walk into
our school and be proud to wear our uniform, I think that’s a good success. Not just walking in, but
when you walk out of our school and we’re not rushed to take our uniform off
because we’re proud to wear it. I reckon that’s a pretty big thing.
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- I saw this Māori fella on the fifty-dollar
note, and I asked my dad: “Who’s this fella, Dad?” And he said: “Oh, that’s Api
(Apirana Ngata). He was the first Māori to graduate from a university.” I know
Api is a big inspiration for Māori, and I respect that. I want to be like that
fella.
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- We have to push past the expectations that
the world has on Māori. We have so much talent and intelligence, but it’s these statistics
and the kind of image that everybody else has placed on us that hold us back.
There is resilience amongst us, and it’s slowly coming through. And that’s what
success means to me as a Māori.
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- I was first in my family to pass Level 1
in school, and so for me I was happy as. I don’t want to tell my mum yet. I
want her to find out next year so she can be happy too.
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