Rapid path to teaching te reo

Ngahi Bidois.

"Bro, Prest would you like a cuppa?"

"Yes please Ngahi, I'll have a tea please."

My brother Preston and other members of our Bidois whanau, including Kim Ngarue Ratapu, had come to the Awahou Marae to do our pohiri and karakia for our te reo Maori students from the Palmerston North programme that Carolyn and I were students on. Earlier Uncle Mita Mohi had given us a korero on the wharenui and everyone had just gone back into the whare after supper while I chilled with my whanau. I was reflecting on how cool it was to be back at the marae when my brother Preston interrupted me. "Nga, bro where you going?" He pointed in the opposite direction. "Gee you been away too long all right. The cups are out that way now."

He was right. I had left Rotorua over seven years ago to attend Massey University on the Tu Tangata scheme. The last time I had been back at the marae was when my mum Doreen passed away in my second year. So this visit was very timely and as well as learning te reo Maori I was also learning my Ngati Rangiwewehi whakapapa and tribal history.

Soon after our return to Palmerston North our te reo Maori programme had a visit from a kaumatua named Te Ao Peehi who was recruiting students for Palmerston North Teachers College. Carolyn decided she was going to attend Massey University to continue her te reo Maori journey by doing a Bachelor of Arts in Management Information systems and Maori studies. She and a few other students bailed me up and convinced me to change careers from business to education.

So I went back to school. After completing the one-year secondary school teachers' diploma I accepted a job at Freyberg High School in Palmerston North. The principal, Russell Trethewey, had told me they had a 'bitsa' job for my first year and bitsa it certainly was. In my first year I taught economics, geography, accounting, transition studies, physical education and Maori language. However, I must have done something right because near the end of that first year the head of Maori studies, 'Uncle' Bill Hohepa, bailed me up and told me that he was leaving and that I was going to do his job next year. He told me that the boss already knew and so did every Maori studies teacher in the Manawatu, because he had told them not to even bothering applying for the position.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like my te reo waka was in the middle of a rapid and in just over three years I had gone from learning te reo Maori on an unemployment access course to the head of a Maori department in a high school and I wasn't even a registered teacher yet! However, my te reo Maori journey and education career were just starting ...

- Ngahihi o te ra Bidois is an international leadership speaker, VIP host, author, leader, husband and father. See www.ngahibidois.com for more of his story.