{"id":3066,"date":"2022-05-27T09:20:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T09:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/?p=3066"},"modified":"2022-07-27T09:26:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T09:26:39","slug":"kia-tika-te-reo-doing-it-right-and-continuously-improving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/kia-tika-te-reo-doing-it-right-and-continuously-improving\/","title":{"rendered":"Kia tika te reo \u2013 Doing it Right and Continuously Improving"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nikau (second from left in front row) with his cohort at Puketeraki marae. Nikau\u2019s flatmate Nic Sinnott (Ng\u0101ti Kahungunu, Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa) is in the centre holding a taiaha. Nic introduced Nikau to Te W\u0101nanga o Aotearoa.<\/em><\/p>

Te P\u012bnakitanga o te reo Kairangi<\/a>\u00a0graduate Nikau Reti-Beazley (Ng\u0101puhi), enrolled in the Level 7 Diploma in \u014ctepoti to improve his grasp on te reo and what he discovered was not only a new extended wh\u0101nau to practise k\u014drero, but also an opportunity to visit some of the stunning marae in the wider Otago area.<\/p>

Nikau was in his final year of a Bachelors of Health Sciences majoring in M\u0101ori public health when his flatmate introduced him to Te W\u0101nanga o Aotearoa in the bustling student town. He managed to fit the evening classes and noho weekends around his University schedule and says the mahi was all worthwhile.<\/p>

\u201cI loved the W\u0101nanga style of delivery \u2013 everyone sharing and contributing, and I particularly enjoyed the noho weekends. That was great to see some incredible marae \u2013 \u014ct\u0101kou, Arai Te Uru and Puketeraki. If it wasn\u2019t for the course, I probably would never have visited those areas. I learned a lot at the noho, especially with the ability to conduct in our tikanga,\u201d says Nikau.<\/p>

The life-long learner says he credits much of what he has achieved to kaiako Keanu Ager who was consistently generous with his time and ensured classes were relatable, working to extend learning and made Nikau appreciate his background even more.<\/p>

\u201cHe influenced me a lot with sharing his own stories and experience. One thing he pushed home was \u201cKia tika te reo\u201d. He was a strong advocate for the language and we agreed on two big things \u2013 to make sure the reo is right and to constantly grow your vocabulary. Not to depend on a finite number of words to describe something but to really expand on that knowledge base,\u201d says Nikau.<\/p>

Hailing from South Auckland with roots in the far north, Nikau knows his whakapapa well and tikanga is particularly important to this dedicated supporter of reo revitalisation and health equity. He is no stranger to the hardships faced by parts of his community and so when the breadth of degree opportunities became clearer upon arriving in Dunedin, Nikau knew where his calling resided.<\/p>

\u201cI grew up in what people may call \u2018the hood\u2019. Some parts were real rough and I remember from a young age confronting a lot of that. I didn\u2019t realise then the existing gaps in the health sector, nor did I know the reasons why M\u0101ori were not receiving the same health care standards in terms of consultations and treatments they needed. But I do now, and I\u2019m working towards making a change for our people,\u201d says Nikau.<\/p>

\u201cHaving M\u0101ori values entrenched in me from an early age has helped me know what I wanted to do with mahi, and that was to help our communities. I didn\u2019t want to be the ambulance at the bottom of the road, but to be involved in the prevention of these things getting any worse,\u201d adds Nikau.<\/p>

Today Nikau works for non-profit organisation H\u0101pai Te Hauora which addresses health challenges faced by tangata whenua. Nikau says his ability to translate kupu and statements from English to reo M\u0101ori has improved tremendously after completing the Diploma and this skill is useful in his mahi.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to speak the language, but it\u2019s another to translate accurately. We\u2019ve been doing a lot of Covid-19 communications and I\u2019ve been translating the p\u0101nui for our communities. It\u2019s thanks to the great work of our kaiako and the resources that were available,\u201dsays Nikau.<\/p>

He knows that he is fortunate to have had the kura kaupapa experience and a good understanding of Te Ao M\u0101ori before embarking on a high school journey at Auckland Grammar School. In some ways, the culture shock from that change helped prepare him for his student days in Te Waipounamu at the University of Otago.<\/p>

\u201cThe change was similar to that change I felt when going into a mainstream high school from a full immersion background, but down in Dunedin it was the change in scenery \u2013 it was obvious I wasn\u2019t in South Auckland anymore! But over the four years I was there I saw the number of M\u0101ori students grow and by the time I left I saw many more reo speakers,\u201d says Nikau.<\/p>

One tauira at a time, \u014ctepoti Dunedin is diversifying and thanks to tauira like Nikau and kaiako like Keanu, Te W\u0101nanga o Aotearoa is acheiving its goal of taking reo to the forefront of change.<\/p>

Learn more about the<\/a> Te P\u012bnakitanga o te reo M\u0101ori programmes<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Te P\u012bnakitanga o te reo Kairangi graduate Nikau Reti-Beazley (Ng\u0101puhi), enrolled in the Level 7 Diploma in \u014ctepoti to improve his grasp on te reo and what he discovered was not only a new extended wh\u0101nau to practise k\u014drero, but also an opportunity to visit some of the stunning marae in the wider Otago area.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-challenge-stories","category-media-releases","category-reo-maori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3071,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066\/revisions\/3071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mahurumaori.com\/mao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}