Lena Ormsby does it again: 17-year-old wins prestigious speech comp for third year in a row

Karamū High School student Lena Ormsby pictured with the trophies for winning the Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Speech Competition.

Karamū High School head student Lena Ormsby (Ngāpuhi, Tainui) is making a name for herself in youth politics and academics.

For the third year in a row, the 17-year-old has won the prestigious Ngā Manu Kōrero Te Matau a Māui Speech Competition.

Ngā Manu Kōrero, which is a Māori speech competition for tangata whenua students who are at secondary school, began in 1965 and encourages fluency in te reo Māori and English.

Ormsby said she was humbled to have placed top in the Senior English category for both her prepared and impromptu speech.

The Year 13 student’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,” Ormsby said.

The manaakitanga and support extended by members of the Karamū High School Kapa Haka Group was a key factor that contributed to Ormsby’s 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 her speech focused more on the actions people can take and on what people can do as a collective.

“Racism is in our society, which we all know, so 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 āhua, that’s our actions that they can comprehend and then implement into their lives,” Ormsby said.

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

The win follows 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 won the Tohu Eke Panuku-Human Rights Commission Award for Impact in the national finals held in Auckland on June 17-18.

Ormsby said she was 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, Ormsby has said 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 said, “As a school, we are continually motivated by our students’ growth daily, but Ormsby’s repeated success is an inspiration to all to strive for greatness.”