Te Whanake - Our Blog
Te Toi Huarewa o Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa
The evolution of our education funding programme
It is great to see the 2020 education funding applications are already flowing in. Our mahi over the past several years has been to expand the options so more of you can access the funding available while also working within the framework of Ipukarea – our strategic plan.
To do that, the education funding programme has been evolving and transforming to align with jobs of the future, skills that will enhance and preserve mātauranga Māori, and to respond to the feedback from the hapū.
Since 2016, we’ve expanded our grant and scholarship programme to support all our hapū wanting to further their education and training – including for education that isn’t considered a graduate degree. That has included funding support for trades training, te reo and other adult education, as well as learning support for secondary and primary school tamariki.
In 2019 we launched our Mātauranga Māori Kaitiaki Scholarship which recognises a registered NRAIT owner undertaking a Masters or PhD related to Māori knowledge – knowledge originating from a Māori worldview, and this year, we’ve created a separate grant that focuses on the pursual of advancing owners’ knowledge of te reo and tikanga.
We’ve also given our education programme an official name - Te Toi Huarewa o Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa – Education Framework as well as updating the look, and perhaps more importantly, we have renamed all the grants and scholarships to have Māori names.
A very big thank you to Pohe Stephens, our 2018 Supreme Scholarship recipient, who has done the mahi to rename the framework and all the grant and scholarship categories. Pohe has also provided the following whakatauki for Te Toi Huarewa o Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa.
Tāpiki-te-aweawe o Tāwhaki
Anything is possible when you believe in yourself
In Tainui and Taranaki lore, it was Tāwhaki-Nui-a-Hema who climbed ‘Te Toi Huarewa’ - a sacred vine leading to Te Toi o Ngā Rangi (the heavens above) in pursuit of the three baskets of knowledge. Te Uru Tau, Te Uru Rangi, and Te Uru Matua. Before Tāwhaki made his ascent, he recited the following incantation to give him strength...
“Tāpiki-nuku, Tāpiki-waho, Tāpiki-te-aweawe o Tāwhaki.”
You can read Pohe’s education journey here.
Apply for a 2020 education grant or scholarship
Education provides the pathway to empowerment, employment and mātauranga; putting you in charge of your own opportunities, and as kaitiaki of our legacy, we encourage our whānau members to seek knowledge across a range of skills that will support the development and advancement of our hapū.
While some of our funding streams focus on specific skills and subjects, any application that raises the level of general education will be considered, at all levels of learning.
So, if you have been considering applying, or considering further education – look through the grants and scholarships available and the related criteria for each one here.
We also encourage you to view and download Te Toi Huarewa o Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa – Education Framework PDF document to get a full overview of the options.
The 2020 grants and scholarships available include:
- Tāpiki-Nuku Grant - Primary Education Grant
- Tāpiki-Waho Grant - Secondary Education Grant
- Tāpiki-Aweawe Grant - Education Grant
- Toi o Ngā Rangi Grant - Te Reo/Tikanga Grant
- Uru Tau - Tertiary Scholarship
- Uru Rangi Scholarship - Postgraduate Scholarship
- Uru Matua Scholarship - Supreme Scholarship
- Tāwhaki-nui-a-Hema Scholarship - Mātauranga Māori Kaitiaki Scholarship
The year in review - NRAIT's wrap up of 2016
Over the past few years we’ve been making a conscious effort to move our communication with NRAIT members to online platforms – we’ve been wanting to reach more of you and share more with you. As a result we’ve had an enjoyable year of engaging with the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa ki Motueka hapū on our Facebook page and via our eNewsletter Eke Pānuku, and now finish the year with a great Facebook timeline of what has happened in 2016.
As we scroll through we came across some key events and mahi that we wanted to share. Here’s a quick re-cap of 2016 at the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust.
New education programme
This year we launched our new education funding programme, which offered NRAIT members a broader range of education funding options. These included new grants for anyone wanting to pursue further education, and scholarships for specific subject areas. This move was to create greater accessibility to any member wanting to develop skill sets, while also focusing on the jobs that Aotearoa needs people to be in, such as science, technology, engineering and maths.
For most years we have more grants available than applicants that apply for them, or that fit within the criteria, so we’ll continue to explore initiatives to get more members taking up the grants and scholarship opportunities in the future.
Find out about this year’s grant and scholarship winners here.
Community and hapū support
The Trust puts a lot of emphasis in supporting members through a model where we aim to provide the tools rather than the solution. We do this through sponsorship when it fits within the benefits that we are able to provide as governed by the legislation our Trust operates under – The Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust Empowering Act 1993. A few things we’ve done in this year include:
- Sponsoring NRAIT member Connor Alexander on a five-day boot camp to Silicon Valley in San Francisco. The opportunity was to inspire Māori students to be the new generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and thinkers and to encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths. This fit well within the aims of the Trust so we jumped at the opportunity to send one of our members along. You can read Connor’s kōrero here.
- The other big project this year that NRAIT sponsored, along with several others in the region, was the building of Te Whare Taikura o Te Maatu at Motueka High School. The whare is a cultural center at the local high school where Māori and Pasifika will have their academic and cultural needs met. To ensure our language continues to be taught, and our kōrero is not lost, the decision to support the build of the whare was an easy one. Learn more about Te Whare Taikura o Te Maatu here.
New initiatives and project facilitators
We also brought two new members on to the team for 12 months to run some specific projects for our members. Joesephine Nathan and Steve Kenny have already begun their mahi with the Heke Ora Challenge, with more initiatives to come in 2017.
Check them out and get involved in the challenges that they’re putting together for members.
Saying goodbye
We also had to say goodbye to few NRAIT people this year – never an easy thing to do.
The first was saying goodbye to Pat Park who passed on 31 May 2016. He was a staunch friend of NRAIT and an incoming Trustee. We posted a photo of Pat on our Facebook page to notify members of the sad news, to which many left messages of great memories. Pat was buried at NRAIT’s urupa, Te Uma in June 2016.
Our second goodbye was to Renee Kelly (nee Thomas) who moved on to take a new role at the Ngāti Tama ki Te Waipounamu Trust. She was with the NRAIT team for 10 years as the in-house accountant. Her enthusiasm and smiling face will be missed.
We greatly appreciate the member engagement on our channels over the year – it makes all the difference to our mahi that we can interact with you on a regular basis.
Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou!
Education paves the way: our 2016 scholarship winners
Tika pumau ai te rangatiratanga mo nga uri whakatipu
Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence, and growth for future generations
2016 marked the year that we launched our new education funding programme offering owners of NRAIT a broader option of grants and more targeted subject areas for our scholarships. This was to create greater accessibility to any member wanting to further their education, while also focusing on the jobs that Aotearoa needs people to be in.
The funding programme was extended to support all of the hapū in any educational advancement including funding support for trades training, te reo and other adult education, as well as learning support for tamariki in secondary and primary school through organisations like Kip McGrath.
We did however have a focus with the scholarships this year on STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). STEM subjects are the future required skills and knowledge our whānau need to fulfil jobs, innovate and create new products and services. Aotearoa currently has a skill shortage in these subject areas.
Recently we had the pleasure of announcing our 2016 scholarship winners, in which we awarded four inspiring individuals. These members study the subjects that our country and our hapū need, at New Zealand tertiary institutions.
Scholarship winners
Matua Jansen
Matua was our Supreme Scholarship winner, granted to him for his work towards studying a post graduate MBA. After graduating from Auckland Medical School in 2008 with distinction Matua took an offer to complete his work placement at Sydney’s Liverpool Hospital. Matua feels that his next logical step is to complete a MBA at Auckland University to further his career development and help him gain the necessary business skills to eventually become a NRAIT Trustee.
Benjamin Kaveney-Gibb
Benjamin is one of three winners of the tertiary scholarship. This award grants him a maximum contribution of $2000 p.a. to help him fund his studies. Ben is enrolled at the University of Otago, studying first year Health Science and hopes to be accepted to further study medicine in 2017. He has always had a natural tendency to care for people and it seemed right to him to lean towards study in a health-related field.
Jozef Benge
Jozef is another recipient of the tertiary scholarship. Jozef has been studying at Victoria University and is about to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations and his overall goal is to become a journalist to help Aotearoa understand the inspirational stories of our whānau, and to help change the misrepresentation of our tangata in the media. Jozef has a keen interest in creating a voice for the minorities in Aotearoa and hopes to be able to create conversation around mana.
Tairoa Morrison
Our third tertiary scholarship award for 2016 went to Tairoa Morrison. Tairoa is currently studying a Bachelor of Māori Performing Arts with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. This degree has been developed with the aim of producing kaihaka who are valued repositories of mātauranga Māori, te reo Māori, tikanga Māori and Māori performing arts; ensuring graduates have the mātauranga and skill base fully recognised within Māori communities.
Grant recipients
Our grant winners are all on the pathway to furthering their education. The grants applied for were a wide breadth of education areas.
The grant winners are Arianna Andrews, Rhiannon Bell, Renee Hayes, Andrew Howard, Teone McGregor, Huria McLeod-Bennett, Shana McLeod-Bennett, Jade Waetford, Kirsty Willison, Kylie Willison and Te Wainui Witika-Park.
We are so proud of all our winners and wish them the best in their future studies or careers. To read the full stories on our scholarship recipients click here.
Learn more here about the scholarships and grants offered this year and to start preparing your application for 2017.
Focusing on jobs of the future
This month we launched our new education funding programme with a new focus – a focus on supporting education for jobs of the future.
Our scholarships are now more focused towards subjects in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and also business management related subjects.
For our descendants and for all of Aotearoa, STEM subjects are the future required skills and knowledge needed to fulfil jobs, innovate and create new products and services, but currently our country has a skills shortage in these areas.
Over the last three years the numbers show more graduates are completing their degrees in the STEM subject areas but there is still work to be done, so we want to encourage our rangatahi to explore these subject areas closer when embarking on tertiary education, and talk to the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust about funding support towards their study.
We also expanded the funding grant options to support all our hapū wanting to further their education and training that isn’t considered a graduate degree. Our hapū can now access funding support for trades training, te reo and other adult education, as well as learning support for secondary and primary school tamariki.
These changes are largely a result of what we heard our hapū asking for during our Project Ipukarea road show. You can find out more about our education funding here.
It is also encouraging to see the high school in our rohe, Motueka High, receiving a $1 million investment to grow the capacity of the school. This investment will see new classrooms built that will support new ways of teaching and learning, and will feature the latest technology infrastructure to support digital learning.
He rei nga niho, he paraoa nga kauae
One must have the right qualifications for great enterprises.
Rōpata Taylor
Chair, Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust
Wakatu Wananga
Our development manager Ivan Tava was delighted to be invited to take part in a recent rangatahi wananga run by our sister organisation, Wakatu Incorporation. The week-long event was designed to advance the personal and cultural development of rangatahi through self-motivation, outdoor pursuits and traditional values. Alongside visits to homelands associated with Ngati Tama, Ngati Koata, Ngati Rarua and Te Atiawa, it was a great opportunity for participants to get to know their tupuna and cousins and learn about their history against the wonderful backdrop of the Abel Tasman National Park and our Motueka homelands.
Of the 16 young men who attended the wananga, 12 were descendents of NRAIT, along with adults Bentham Ohia, Jarrod Buchanan, Kapahau Matthews and Eru Morrison. We were proud to be able to provide the group with our very own basketball-style reversable singlets that feature our homelands Te Maatu and Motueka. A special honour for NRAIT was having the wananga led by Ropata Taylor, a member of our Board and a prominent leader among NRAIT people.
Update on our superstar Tailah Love
Left to right: Tailah, Trish and Ivan
I had the pleasure of hearing about one of recent grant recipients Tailah Love and his achievements in the States. His mother, and biggest supporter Trish informed me that he is doing really well and has 11 offers to attend university in America that include top universities Harvard and Stanford. NRAIT proudly supported Tailah to travel to the US and attend scouting camps and we are so happy to see our investment in his future has led to even more success for our talent Tailah.
Tailah has recently been nominated as a finalist for the Tasman Secondary school sportsman of the year. Unfortunately missed out on this award however I'm sure he is satisfied with the 12 awards he has recieved including Marlborough Boys College Sportsman of the Year and the Marlborough District Council Youth Civic award that is presented by the Mayor Alistair Sowman.
We are very happy that our financial support has helped Tailah achieve his goals and very excited to watch him succeed even further. Good luck Tailah from all of us and your NRAIT whanau!
Read our first story about Tailah here.
Aiming high
To support the educational achievement of our people, NRAIT offers all owners the opportunity to apply for an NRAIT scholarship or grant. Read about our recent award winners in issues of Eke Panuku. The aim of the programme is to help young people achieve their potential by supporting them to accomplish their educational aspirations, and to encourage them in turn to contribute their skills to the wellbeing and advancement of NRAIT’s people.
Changes are being made to the current funding programme to make it more accessible and effective, and NRAIT scholarship and grant manager Sacha Macdonald wants to see more students going for it.
“I encourage you all to have a go: work out what would help you get ahead with your education, then put your best foot forward and apply for funding. The Board allocates educational funding every year for this purpose and they’d like to see more of you seizing the opportunity.”
Applications for 2014 open in January and close on 30 April.
E-learning for tamariki
An important part of our Te Whanake programme is to widen learning opportunities for our tamariki and everyone within our rohe. One way to do that is to increase the availability of computers. To put words into action, NRAIT has donated funds to Parkland School’s Whānau classes for the purchase of a set of MacBook laptops.
Koro Brian Bailey generously donated to the Whānau classes and challenged iwi organisations in the region to match his contribution. We saw to it that we did. Students and their kaiako are thrilled to have the laptops to support their learning and are well used every day.
