Primary aim to share te reo

Fluent Maori speakers at Solway College have helped launch a Young Enterprise scheme - Tohaina Kahurangi - that offers lessons in te reo to Wairarapa pre-schoolers and primary schoolchildren.

Tohaina Kahurangi chief executive Potiki Hikitapua-Martin (Ngati Porou, Ngai Tahu) said she was one of four 17-year-old friends, including Te Arahi Huirama (Ngati Kahungunu), Josephine Surridge and Alex Powell (Ngati Porou), who struck upon the business idea as part of their Young Enterprise studies.

She and Ms Huirama are fluent te reo speakers and the group will offer language lesson visits to primary schools and early childhood groups in Wairarapa, where they will speak and sing in te reo and share Maori tikanga or traditions and customs from next term.

Ms Hikitapua-Martin said Tohaina Kahurangi translates as Share the Treasure and the group felt the title captured the ethos of their business idea.

The group will ask for a koha, or donation, for taking classes and will also conduct their lessons using learning aids such as flash cards, games and multimedia downloads they intend selling to the schools and organisations visited.

The learning aids will be tailormade for organisations and specific Wairarapa towns and resource packages will be personalised to each of the classes the group visits.

"We will use an image on a flashcard for instance of a popular park in their town, not some random park from somewhere else, or the door to their classroom - something familiar that they know well."

She said Solway College had a large pool of students with te reo Maori as their first language "who are excited about being able to share their treasure, or taonga".

"We know from our research that educators can be unconfident with pronunciations and protocols and we can help with that and we're pretty non-threatening.

"We are also passionate that learning about local and relevant subjects is so much easier and that Maori Language Week should go on all year."

Solway College principal Beth Rogerson applauded the students for creating the business model and said the scheme was a "good opportunity" for the young entrepreneurs.

For more information or to arrange a language lesson visit, call Tohaina Kahurangi at Solway College on 06 3782219