In October 2021, Dr. Will Flavell, Kaihautū Māori at Te Hononga Akoranga COMET started a yearlong project working with year 7 and 8 tamariki Māori from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Puau Te Moana Nui a Kiwa and Glen Innes School.
He wanted to provide them a platform for tamariki Māori to voice their views and opinions on what matters to them - with the hope that educators, policymakers, local politicians and leaders would listen.
The stories highlighted issues that were important to tamariki and their whanau. We sat down with some of the students from Glen Innes Schools and discussed what their topics and stories covered and the solutions they hoped to see.
Many thanks to the Tāmaki Regeneration Company who provided funding for this project, and to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Puau Te Moana Nui a Kiwa and Glen Innes Schools for encouraging their students to participate.
On 15 September, Will Flavell and the tamariki from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Puau Te Moana Nui a Kiwa and Glen Innes School presented their book Whakarongo ki te reo mātātahi at the Tāmaki Makaurau Education Forum. (click image to the right to download the book).
Comments from those attending praised the project highlighting the importance of hearing our tamariki voices and insights and the importance they play in creating better communities.
“When I look [at this book] I see the voices and the issues, I see also the things that they are proud of within their community. I think what the team here has done is amazing and I would encourage other communities in Auckland to consider doing something like this so that rangatahi have a resource that they can own and that gives them an opportunity to voice and socialise some of the things that are important to them.” – Raniera Pene, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua
“This book is about the rangatahi voices in GI and highlighted how wise and insightful our views of our tamariki mokopuna and rangatahi are and the issues that are really important to them. These are the issues that are also important in our world in our politics and communities, and by hearing the tamariki voice brought home to me how inclusive we need to be and how often the voice of our tamariki is lost.” – Anita Gill, Te Puna Reo Māori
