Year 8 English and Te Reo Māori winners, Max Tye (Pompallier Catholic School) and Hineteaio Chapman (Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Rangi Aniwaniwa). Photo / Supplied
Year 8 English and Te Reo Māori winners, Max Tye (Pompallier Catholic School) and Hineteaio Chapman (Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Rangi Aniwaniwa). Photo / Supplied
Climate change, whānau (family) and racism were just some of the topics covered by the next generation of Far North orators who took part in an annual school speech competition in Kaitaia last week.
Fifteen schools from around the district competed at the 2022 Te Hiku Manukōrero-Far North Speech Competition, which ran from June 28-30 at Kaitaia's Te Ahu Centre.
Monday featured Years 5-6 alternating between English and te reo Māori, followed by Years 7-8 who did the same thing the next day.
In the Tau Māori (te re Māori) category, students were allowed to waiata tautoko (sing) and in both the English and Tau Māori sections, cue cards and extended time limits were allowed but attracted penalties if utilised.
Selena Bercic, Kaitautoko Matauranga/Education Support at Far North REAP, said the reason for including the rules was mostly to provide an opportunity to practise for the secondary competition.
"It is a competition, but they're only young, so we don't want to put them off public speaking as it's one of the hardest things to do as a child," she said.
According to Bercic, the competition started eight years ago at Kaitaia's Pompallier Catholic School and was taken over by Far North REAP five years ago.
Image 1 of 9: Year 8 English and Te Reo Maori winners, Max Tye (Pompallier Catholic School) and Hineteaio Chapman (Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Rangi Aniwaniwa). Photo/Supplied
Each year 10-11 themes including current affairs or localised topics are provided to the taitamariki (children) to choose from, who then have 8-10 weeks to come up with a speech on their topic.
Bercic said the Year 5-8 students were a delight to work with and looked forward to the event every year.
"Organising this event is one of the most challenging parts of my role, but it's also one of the most rewarding," she said.
"This age group is the most influential and charismatic age level because they are still so open and engaged.
"It's not easy to stand up and it can be quite intimidating getting up in front of so many other schools and their whānau."
Bercic added it was important if a student was unable to speak on stage for whatever reason, that they were given an opportunity to do so in front of the judges afterwards.
Building confidence through the event was important to Bercic, who said once the students went on to the secondary level, they could carry on competing in the Ngā Manu Kōrero Speech Competition.
According to Bercic, the Tau Māori section was only introduced four years ago and the culture had grown significantly since then.
She said in spite of that growth, however, there was still room for more entries in order to catch up with the English section.
"There have been some really strong topics coming from our te reo participants which has been really awesome to see," Bercic said.
