New Ara Te |Pūkenga Te Reo Kaiako Follows Teaching Tradition To Meet District Demand

You could say the new Timaru-based Ara | Te Pūkenga te reo Māori kaiako (teacher), Haami Rahui (Ngāi Tahu, Tuhoe), was born for the role.

Haami Rahui is a second-generation educator, following in the footsteps of his father Matua Hori Rahui who was well-known for his dedication to teaching in the wider Canterbury region. "They were pioneers for our community in things Māori back in the late 80s and 90s," Rahui said of both his late father and mother Kareen Rahui.

"I was lucky in in my upbringing that I was brought up in te ao Māori with my language and culture put to the forefront as a young child. I felt this was always going to be the thing I was going to do. My upbringing has directed me this way."

Haami Rahui, whose polished and fluent reo saw him win the Waitaha region Ngā Manu Korero at high school is now literally sitting at his father’s old desk, preparing to share his own knowledge and skills with a region hungry for the language.

New classes in partnership with Te Aitarakihi Marae-a-Iwi Multicultural Centre in Timaru include a free one-year Level Two Te Reo course and another 10-hour introductory course (Te Hoe) starting this month.

Ara | Te Pūkenga Director of Southern campuses Leonie Rasmussen said some spaces were still available for classes starting next week with further advanced and open-entry classes scheduled for Timaru in 2024, along with offerings planned in Ashburton and Oamaru.

Te Aitarakihi Taumata Chairperson Whaea Ani Haua described the partnership with Ara |Te Pūkenga as a blessing for whānau whānui (extended family) and community, and said it assisted in achieving strategic goals.

"There is an increasing desire for many in our wider community to up skill their Reo Māori to help with their understanding and development in Te Ao Māori. We’re fortunate to be able to offer these opportunities not only at basic level, but at advanced levels also," Whaea Ani said.

"We are so privileged to have Haami Rāhui as our current Kaiako for those joining the classes. He has been groomed and nurtured by his father, Matua Hori Rāhui, who was the forerunner of Te Reo Māori programmes in our schools and in the wider community for many years before he passed away.

Haami Rahui said he wanted to contribute to help meet the demand he’d seen since returning from bringing up his own family in Australia for 16 years. "There’s been a number of people who have played a role in teaching te reo since my parents but, particularly in recent times, there have been gaps of resource in the area," he said.

Equipped with a long-held adult teaching certificate, he’d been working in a range of settings since returning to South Canterbury and is now also completing his primary teaching degree.

He said he was looking forward to helping provide a path for his own generation to learn their culture and find connection, and to meeting the wider demand for te reo through his new role.

"It’s awesome. As a whole, the nation is opening up to things Māori and this shows our town is involved in that and wanting the same thing. Revitalising the language is part and parcel of us becoming a nation that is properly bicultural while acknowledging our tangata whenua."

Behind it all is a wider aspiration.

"My passion is our next generation and hoping we can bring back the style of learning where our young ones are immersed in our language from birth. Being able to hold the mantle for our children so they can be totally immersed in the language and culture from the cradle to the grave would be my hope."

Ani Haua said learning in a Tikanga-based situation on site at Te Aitarakihi Marae-ā-Iwi Multicultural Centre enhanced the learning and respect for customs and protocols shared during the course of the programme.

Haami Rahui felt that teaching in the marae was a blessing because it "embodied the stories and learnings at the same time".

"It also takes learning back to its traditions. The marae has always been a place of learning, wananga, getting together and seeking knowledge and so takes me back to traditional ways."

Connecting with those traditional ways, he said, will help secure Timaru a place in a better future.

"We’ve come ahead in leaps and bounds in Aotearoa and I think we are actually at the forefront. The world is looking at us and how we as a country recognise our indigenous people, culture, language and the customs of the whenua. If that continues to feed throughout the world, that’s great, but my focus is our town here in Timaru."

A teaching and learning heritage that everyone in the region can tap into.

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