- Just seeing her accomplishing everything –
setting her goals and smashing them - and just breaking out of our mould, has motivated me to do
what she has done, and just further myself.
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- You’re not doing it by yourself. There’s
so many more of you out there. Whether it’s in te ao Māori or not, you find
your people and then you work with them - and then you grow.
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- Seeing Māori do really well is cool, and that
builds up all the other Māori students as well.
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- My dad’s a shearer in the summer and I’m a
rousey. So, being in the sheds and working hard is a big reason for what I’m doing. I want to be
successful for my parents. Another big reason for why I want to be successful is for my school. We have
a bit of a reputation for being the underdog that continues to succeed. Despite
public perception, we always have students that thrive, and we always have
students that love to succeed. So despite all of this, being a role model for
them and eventually being able to give back to my parents is why I want to be
successful.
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- An assessment I had this year involved the
idea of researching a sustainable action. The action that I chose was cultural sustainability at our
school. A part of this was interviewing students at our school, especially senior Māori students. I asked
them for reasons why they think Māori were not achieving at our school. Forty percent of our school
are of Māori descent, yet less than 5% are attending Māori subjects or have Māori activities in their
lives, and I asked them why. The two reasons were that being Māori wasn’t
important in a Euro-centric society, and the second was that they were not
brought up with Māori being as important in their households.
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- Next year I’m attending Otago University.
I’m going to be studying sociology, Māori studies and indigenous development. I want to study
these subjects with the intention of working for the Ministry of Education. I want to bridge
the gap for Māori in education. I want to increase Māori success rates overall,
and I want to be the figure for all Māori students - to prove that we can be
successful, we can be inspirational, and we will succeed despite everything
that comes at us.
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- We do get support from our parents and
stuff. But it’s getting encouraged by your own peers, and giving encouragement to people your own
age. It shows that we’re not just young teenagers who just like to muck around.
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- Sometimes the people that help you succeed
are the people that don’t really realise that they’re doing it. Like people
that you look up to as role models so that you want to emulate what they’re
doing. It gives you courage to be better than what is
expected of you.
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- It’s been cool being able to teach the
younger students what I learnt as a younger student. It’s all about the family, the whānau and
sharing our knowledge. I learn things from the junior students every day, as well as they learn things
from me.
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- My biggest success was probably getting
Māori Prefect. There were other people going for it, but for me it felt really right, because I was
connected with all the teina. I’ve grown with them through school. They’ve been
my biggest support and I’ve been theirs. So it’s pretty cool for me to get a
role that goes higher up into the school, so I can bring it back, if that makes
sense?
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- Everyone who puts themselves out as Māori,
we’re really close. We have a classroom and we just hang out in there. We
support each other and we share our successes together and we grow together. We
are just this huge whānau. We’re a little bit separate from everyone else, but
it brings us a lot closer. We know that we can be ourselves, we feel good to be
ourselves. We’re proud to be Māori.
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- It’s not just academic success. You can
succeed in sports or be a role model to the younger generation coming up.
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- We’ve been mentoring some Year 10 boys. I
went to a leadership day where they were running an activity. They led it, and
it was just so cool to see how they had grown over the year. Given the
opportunity, they can succeed. People believed in them and they were told:
“You’re a leader”, and it helped them a lot.
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- I’m a part
of the tuakana-teina (older-younger sibling) system, where you aspire to be a good role model for
our younger students, and for all cultures. There are no barriers.
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- As a leader
for next year, one of my main goals is to bring a lot more Māori students along
the journey to success with me. I like to encourage it - to Tautoko (support) it any
way I can.
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- We have a
tuakana-teina set up. When I was little I was set up with a tuakana, and they
would guide me
and help me and advise me, and it was so cool. Tuakana help you through school
with everything, like sports or education. They just help you. Now that I’m
older, I’m a tuakana and I’ve got a teina, and helping them and giving them
that support, it’s such a cool way to promote success and whanaungatanga.
It’s... it’s just so awesome.
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- When I have
got my degree at the end of university, I will be generous, and care for my
family and community.
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- I must
always hold on to the values and practices that have been planted in me by my
parents and my elders on the marae - to always be humble; to remain on the same
level as my friends; never to think I am above them; remain as one in the
group. That’s when I believe I will be successful.
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- I think the
same. “Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini. My strength
doesn’t come from me alone – it comes from the many”. Relationships among our
friends, that is the main thing – it is about establishing relationships and
remaining humble in all things you do.
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- Success
for me is being able to support the students of our school. It’s just an
amazing feeling when you are able to help other people and make them want to do
good.
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- Our school has the funding for a wharenui.
It’s going to go up in front of the school. I think that will be a big
contributor to student success. It’s something close to us, and something we as
Māori students and the rest of the school will have.
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- I haven’t really had a role model to look
up to in my family, because there’s nobody really that’s academically successful. So, really, I
want to be the first person in my family to succeed at school.
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- I was selected for peer support. That was
fun. I enjoyed that, and that helped me with leadership skills. Then being part of the PPP (Pause
Prompt Praise) programme - that was good! It also made me feel happy, because
you were helping younger Māori students along the way.
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- Like, if you see one of us pass, that
means that we can all pass. We can actually beat the stereotypes.
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- As Māori, you want everyone to be there
with you to help you along the way, and to help them along the way. You don’t
just want to succeed for yourself, but you’re taking everyone with you.
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- I am doing it because I want to give back
to my community. I think that’s what our goal in life is - just to give back.
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- It’s not the achievement itself. It’s what
happens afterwards - being able to provide and give back to the people who have
helped and supported you along the way.
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- I think being there as a role model was
one of the biggest things that really made me feel like I was making a difference,
when they felt like they had someone to come and talk to, they could relate to.
I felt really special.
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- Doing the best that you can do
academically, still holding on to who you are as a Māori person. Not just
thinking of yourself and your immediate whānau; thinking of your whole iwi,
your whole rohe, all your people. Wanting to help others, but holding on to who
you are
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- Last year in our Māori class, we had a few
Pākehā boys who hardly knew any Māori at all. We kind of thought that they weren’t enjoying it, but
then you see them the next year coming back. It’s really cool to see that
they’re actually enjoying it and learning it, like actually liking te reo
Māori.
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- We hang down at our gym and there’s these
Pākehā boys, and they start speaking te reo. It’s a cool thing to see. And then
we can just go and speak it with them, just for fun, and they’re actually
having fun doing it.
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- He’s Pākehā. He took Māori right from the
junior years to senior year, and he’s near to a fluent level of speaking Māori.
He’s been one of the only Head Boys since I’ve been there, that will get up on
stage at the appropriate times and speak in Māori.
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- I guess being a New Zealander means you’ve
got the best of both worlds.
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