Flavell: Te Waka Pu Whenua Maori Adult Ed. Centre
te-pati-maori
Mon Mar 30 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Flavell: Te Waka Pu Whenua Maori Adult Ed. Centre
Monday, 30 March 2009, 10:06 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Te Waka Pu Whenua Maori Adult Education Centre
RSA Club; Marae Street, Taumarunui
Te Ururoa Flavell; Member of Parliament for Waiariki
Friday 27 March 2009; 8pm
This is a very special occasion to celebrate the tenth birthday of Te Waka Pu Whenua – and to recognise the distinctive contribution it has made – and continues to make – for Maori throughout this rohe.
It is, if you like, sandwiched between two other very significant birthdays.
This week we have been celebrating the fifth year on-air anniversary of Maori Television; and in June we will be celebrating five years since the Electoral Commission received a registration for a political party to contest the general election. The name of that party was the Maori Party.
The connections between all three birthday celebrations are strong.
All three are making a very positive contribution to the nature of our society. On the national scene, Maori Television through our TV screens brings our stories to the country, influencing Pakeha and Maori alike as we open te ao Maori to the world.
The Maori Party in Te Whare Paremata we hope makes you proud with our stands on behalf of our people on many issues all recorded through the Hansard – through to the differences that are being made to all members of the Taumarunui district by Te Waka Pu Whenua.
All three I believe, have started with one simple idea – the distinctive strength of the independent Maori voice.
All of them show how the unique values of indigenous enterprise enhance the culture, the heritage and the community spirit of all who live in this land.
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And so it is with great pride that I say to you, kia nui te mihi, hari huritau!
Te Waka Pu Whenua – a Maori Adult Education Centre in the centre of Aotearoa – is indeed something to celebrate and we need more like you.
No doubt, when you opened your doors ten years ago you had dreams and aspirations.
I am told you set out to promote the empowerment of Maori through adult education, to safeguard traditional Maori knowledge and to provide learning assistance to Maori adults in pursuit of our traditions.
And I am told also that over 350 kaumatua have taken part in Te Waka Pu Whenua activities over the last decade. That in itself is an outstanding achievement.
Rather than simply expressing our love and respect for our elders; you have given true meaning to the view that our elders are most definitely the guardians, the kaitiaki, of our tribal traditions and stories.
So often, Maori educators talk of life long learning. Te Waka Pu Whenua has given life to that concept. I understand you have a kaumatua team just raring to go and be set loose on computer technology. Awesome – ka rawe. E tika ana kia kaua tatou e noho mataku ki nga taonga o te ao hou!
I am told that as a first stage, the centre has initiated a stylish communication strategy which consists of your kaumatua communicating with their whanau – and in particular their mokopuna – via the internet. All you need now is the texting technology to complete the package!!!
Our team at Parliament I think will know just how successful the programme really is, when we start getting e-mails or texts from you about our stand on this and that So I will be waiting for the first one to come through!!!
Can I say that the thing I like about the approach taken here is that firstly, it acknowledges that our pakeke have mätauranga to share in all sorts of ways, by simple life experience for example.
Secondly, they/ you have more to learn, learning never stops. This is important in this day and age.
Too often our younger ones think that because they finish school early, that that is the end of it. Clearly it is not and role modelling that learning never stops and anyone can learn is crucial if we are address the under achievement of our people in the education system.
A major part of the project is the recognition of the histories and learning that kaumatua can share with younger generations about the sites of cultural significance around this area.
I heard about one of your kaumatua, who took a group through the streets of Taumarunui, giving reasons for the street layout and street names – and made the connections back to their specific namesakes.
The transfer of knowledge from one generation to another is particularly important – the schools around here know they have a vital source of matauranga just waiting to be shared with the leaders of tomorrow.
And it is learning that is as wide, as rapid and constant as the very nature of the awa that flows from Ngahuinga to Ohinepane.
The river itself has formed a basis for one of your courses, Te Tira Haere, which motivates and inspires participants by immersing them in a tikanga Maori programme. Whether it is long-term unemployed, or young offenders, Te Tira Haere is a spiritual journey; a physical journey; a journey in which all who go through it, come out, reaffirmed in who they are.
Then there’s Nga Reo o te Whenua – a series of Maori history field trips; a Maori oratory course in whaikorero and all of the whanau and marae development that takes place, year in, year out.
The centre runs courses in the teaching and design of weaving in kete, whariki, korowai, piupiu and tukutuku – it is leading the way for upholding the strengths of raranga weaving.
Te Huapae o Matariki Fashion Show is the talk of the land, with the amazing creativity of the designers, and the absolute beauty of your models, particularly your Naomi Campbell look-alikes in the shape of your kuia.
The unique opportunities given to the designers in creating traditional and contemporary works which incorporate the patterns of their particular marae or iwi have really put Taumarunui on the map.
Now, a huge part of all of this, of course, is the incredible talents of your Chief Executive, Ngarau Tarawa, and the dedicated commitment she has given so solidly for the last ten years and more. Me mihi ki a koe ka tika. Ko koe tera e whakapou kaha nei mo te iwi, tena rawa atu koe.
Now, I wanted to acknowledge some of these stories and achievements which most of you will be aware of, because in my mind, what you are doing at Te Waka Pu Whenua epitomises the unique strength of Maori education. It is where the Maori Party believes we need to be.
You are demonstrating that Maori education is more than a curriculum document; more than a NCEA credit can convey.
It is about all of us learning and reviving our korero tawhito. We think in terms of outcomes, such as knowing our whakapapa and whanau, hapu and iwi connections; knowing our marae, our waka; our maunga; our awa; and it is feeling, believing and practicing the tikanga of our tupuna.
Education is expressed in many forms alongside that of the written word. A rounded education will ensure that learning is through the medium of te reo rangatira; it will be through waiata, moteatea and the arts.
But education is also, as Te Waka Pu Whenua knows only too well, about a broad set of outcomes around our wellbeing. It is realised in the concepts of oranga – in the dimensions of taha wairua, tinana, hinengaro and whanau; it is about safety, protection, love and hope; it is about health in the strongest sense.
Education is ultimately about who we are, where we are, and what contribution we are making to our future.
The Maori Party absolutely recognises the importance of education for our people. Education has been at the forefront of our renaissance in the recent past for example. The kohanga reo movement was not just about having our children learn Maori. It was far more.
Involvement of whanau in the learning development of our tamariki, holistic learning, empowering ourselves to believe that we could take our education into our own hands and so on. So we must never underestimate the value of programmes such as those you have offered in Taumarunui. The learning might take place with a small number of people in a small room but the implications are huge. We must not forget that.
The recipe for success for our people in education seems fairly straight forward to me. There is an element of learning our reo and our tikanga, there may well be a spiritual element there, there may be an element of living together (such as Maori Boarding Schools), there are teachers who care about the people they teach and they want to be with their students.
I reckon it must work because these are the elements that prisons seem to follow in the rehabilitation of our people before they return to us. This is the framework that we wish to influence the education system in over the next few years.
We have taken other ideas to heart as well, in the creation of our policy statement, He aha te mea nui.
We want to promote the establishment of a Maori Education Authority; the creation of a Centre for Maori language excellence; mobile literacy and numeracy services to reach all our whanau in rural areas; and an investment in trade training and apprenticeships.
We want cultural competency to be a core requirement for all educators of Maori so all teachers know our tamariki and know about us as a people; we believe that there should be greater freedom to advance Maori educational outcomes with whanau, hapu and iwi models.
And so, when we come to any discussion of education, we want to celebrate the strength of the indigenous perspective as the waka which will literally carry us forward.
A waka in which the ability to read the land and its people is valued. A waka in which being Maori is an asset; in which the natural and cultural resources of te Ao Maori are appreciated.
You have earned your place, Te Waka Pu Whenua, as a community on the move; an initiative in which your leadership is recognised not just within this rohe, but nationally and I believe internationally too.
I happened to find a paper from the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education in which Te Waka Pu Whenua Trust and the kaumatua of Taumarunui were promoted as a special case study for indigenous education.
And why should we be surprised?
This is a wonderful programme; an impressive centre; full of inspiring and inspired leaders, who have truly made a difference.
You have shaped knowledge in a way which promotes matauranga Maori, and celebrates the capacity to learn as Maori, to live as Maori. You have truly done well.
Hei paku kōrero whakamutunga, ki a koutou o Te Waka Pu Whenua. Kua eke ki te tekau o ngā tau kua kawe nei koutou i nga tumanako o te hapori nei ki töna taumata. Me whakairi i te kete o mātauranga ki te pakitara o te whare mo te wa poto a te po nei kia taea ai e koutou, te whakanui i nga mea kua oti nei i a koutou me te whakatinanatanga o nga tumanako.
He ra ano äpöpö. Tikina te kete he taua wa, tohatohaina nga painga o te kete ki te whakatupuranga hou, ki waenga i a koutou ano. Ko nga hua o te kete, he mea reka ki te taringa, ki te ngäkau, ki te wairua. Kia kaha mai.
Thank you for having me. See you in another ten years!!!
ENDS
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