Karamū High School Student Achieves ‘three-peat’ In Prestigious Speech Competition

Karamū High School head student, Lena Ormsby (Ngāpuhi, Tainui) has won the prestigious Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Speech Competition for the third year in a row.

The 17-year-old, who is in Year 13, says she is humbled to have taken out the Senior English category for both her prepared and impromptu speech.

Ngā Manu Kōrero, which is a Māori speech competition for Tangata Whenua students who are at secondary school, first began in 1965 and encourages fluency in Te Reo Māori and English.

Lena Ormsby’s speech, which was delivered at Lindisfarne College on June 23, comes off the back of her 2021 performance where she became the first Karamū High School student to win the competition since 1989.

“It felt really fulfilling and was a full circle moment. Being in my last year of high school, and especially after the work over the past two years, it just makes me feel like I have made the most of the opportunities I have been given.”

The manaakitanga extended by members of the Karamū High School Kapa Haka Group to Lena was a key factor which contributed to her success.

“The support and connection I have with the Kapa Haka group has grown so much over the years and means so much to me. The bond really was shown through the tautoko at the end.”

Her prepared speech, “Our Future” focused on the positive approach we can all take.

“This year I focused more on the actions we can take and on what we can do as a collective. Racism is in our society, which we all know. It was more about how just being there for our tamariki, that's enough for them. It's not necessarily our words that they can understand but our ahua. That's our actions that they can comprehend and then implement into their lives.”

For the impromptu speech, she chose the topic of “Light a fire in the heart of the world”.

The win comes off the back of her continued success at another speech competition – the Race Unity Speech Awards. Not only did she win the Hawke’s Bay heat in May, but she also won the Tohu Eke Panuku – Human Rights Commission Award for Impact in the national finals held in Auckland on June 17-18.

Lena says she is grateful to have found out about Ngā Manu Kōrero when she did two years ago when she was in Year 11.

“I was just really grateful to be at Ngā Manu Kōrero again. I say this every time but Ngā Manu Kōrero is my favourite speech competition. Just the mana and tone of the whole day, everyone is there to support the speakers. It's pretty cool.”

Although, this is her last year at Karamū High School, Lena says she is “pretty determined to keep the Karamū legacy going”.

Her win has secured her a spot at the National Finals in Dunedin in September. Members of Karamū’s Kapa Haka group will also attend to tautoko her.

Principal Dionne Thomas says: “As a school we are continually motivated by our students growth daily, but Lena’s repeated success is an inspiration to all to strive for greatness”.

© Scoop Media