Karamu High School student wins Māui speech competition two years running

Karamu High School student Lena Ormsby with her trophies for winning the Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Speech Competition. Photo/Supplied.

Karamu High School student Lena Ormsby, 16, wowed judges for the second year in a row with her "powerful" kōrero at the Māui speech competition last month.

Her winning speech at EIT in July follows her 2021 win, when she became the first Karamu High School student to win the competition since 1989.

Ngā Manu Kōrero is a Māori speech competition for secondary school Māori students that began in 1965 and encourages fluency in te reo Māori and English.

Ormsby delivered a prepared speech and a five-minute impromptu speech to win overall at the Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Speech Competition.

For the impromptu speech, she had to choose one of five topics provided and had five minutes to prepare.

Her topic was New World, New Values, and Ormsby took inspiration from the Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi song, which was sung at the beginning of the competition day.

Similar to her winning topic last year, the Year 12 student chose to speak about racism.

Last year Ormsby spoke on racism and how people outwardly see it, but this year she addressed how "racism is also silence".

In a speech titled Matimati nō te ringa Kotahi, Fingers of One Hand, the Karamu student talked about the need to celebrate one another's differences and not shy away from asking questions to gain a better understanding.

Ormsby said she felt the topic was "really important".

She explained her speech addressed how people can be too afraid to stand up for themselves or someone else and stop racial slurs.

"It's also when you're quiet and conform to society's standards or hide part of your culture to fit in.

"It's bringing awareness to everyone that racism is also silence and how we can help fix that and help others find their confidence and their culture to move forward," Ormsby said.

Speech competitions are nothing new to the student, who takes part in multiple regional competitions, having won the Hawke's Bay heat of the 2021 Race Unity Speech Awards last year and coming second this year.

However, she said the Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Speech Competition is "powerful".

The Year 12 Karamu student said she was humbled to have taken out the Senior English category for both her prepared and impromptu speech.

While fewer people were allowed to watch due to Covid restrictions, Ormsby said having her mum Heidi Ormsby, teachers, and peers in the audience meant the world to her.

A unique part of the Ngā Manu Kōrero is that peers of the competitors have a chance to tautoko or to support and prop up their classmates before they get up and speak.

Ormsby said this was one of her favourite parts of the competition day.

"I think that's special as other speech competitions don't do that. I was honoured, deeply humbled, and encouraged that they were willing to support me and that they were passionate about my success," she said.

"It wasn't my success, it was their success as well – my school, my family's, everyone's – I was just sharing that with them."

Karamu High School principal Dionne Thomas congratulated Ormsby on her success.

"To win the Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Senior English Speech Competition two years running is exceptional," Thomas said.