Ō Rangaranga with Mahi Parata

Ko te Mahitahi tōku nei ingoa, he uri nō konei, nō tēnei whenua o tātou, o mātou o Ngāti Pikiao, tērā te pepeha, tēnei te pepeha o mātou. Ko Matawhaura tā mātou maunga, ko Rotoiti i kitea ai a Ihenga tā mātou Moana, ko te awa e rere nei, ā, ko te Ohau.

Mahitahi is my name, I am from here, from this region of ours, of Ngāti Pikiao. Our tribal motto states; Matawhaura is our lofty mountain. Rotoiti is the great expanse of water found by Ihenga. Ōhau is the river that flows herein.

Ā, ēnei wai, ā, ēnei whenua, ā, i ora ai i a mātou, ā, nō konei.

We, the locals are sustained by these sacred waters and land features.

He tūranga nō te tari o Oranga Tamariki, he tonotono, he manga hoki, ā, nō Te Hāpai Ō, kei konei au, kia ora.

My role at Oranga Tamariki is to be the “gofa”, and servant of Te Hāpai Ō team, so, here I am, thank you very much.

Ā, ko te mea tino whakamānawa ki ahau i tēnei wānanga, te ngākau tuwhera ki te ako ki runga i tēnei whenua o mātou o Ngāti Pikiao.

Something special for me about this language seminar is the willingness to learn on this domain of ours, of Ngāti Pikiao.

I rangona (e) au te ngākau tuwhera ki a tātou, ki ngā tikanga hou, ki ngā kupu hou, ahakoa iti, ahakoa nui ngā akoranga, ā, he wheako i pai mai ki a au ko te noho taringa tuwhera ki tā mātou hoa, ehara ko te kaiako noa iho.

I feel that we were all open to understanding new customs, words, no matter whether the lessons were deep or superficial. One experience that I enjoyed was to listen intentionally to our colleague, who was not just a tutor.

Ka tū ai pea ki ērā tari kia whakapakari ai tātou, hoa ki konei, ki te whakapakari tā mātou reo ia rā, ia kōrero, ā, kia noho ai tātou, kia noho ai mātou i ngā rōpū ki ia tari ki ia tari, ā, kia whakapiki wairua, ā, kia whakapiki oranga, ā, i roto i tēnei kaupapa, ko te reo Māori.

We can perhaps take the initiative at those offices to develop ourselves, along with colleagues here to strengthen our language fluency, daily, in all our conversations, and establish groups in each office to help boost morale and wellbeing with a language revitalisation context.

Tētahi mea i piki ai tātou, ā, ko te whakapakari, ia rā, ā, ia kōrero, ā, e noho ai tāua ki ētehi kōrero. Kia kaha, kia māia ki te whakapakari, ā, whakamātau ana ētehi kupu, ā, e mōhio ana ai.

One work on for us is to habitualise daily interactions, conversations, for us to hold discussions.  Let’s be resolute and courageous to develop and test words in order to understand.

Ki a au nei ko Ō Rangaranga te manawa o te kaupapa, te manawa o te ahurea (e) Māori ai a Oranga Tamariki.

In my opinion, Ō Rangaranga is the cornerstone of this event, of a culture open to developing a Māori foundation at Oranga Tamariki.