One of the things that the University of Canterbury is proud of is that one of its early graduates was the esteemed Maori leader, Sir Apirana Ngata. The Maori Department has a wall hanging from the 1994 centennial celebrations which recalls Ngata's words which are often quoted:

E tipu, e rea,
Mo nga ra o tou ao;
Ko to ringa ki nga rakau o te Pakeha
Hei ara mo to tinana,
Ko to ngakau ki nga taonga a o tipuna Maori
Hei tikitiki mo to mahuna,
Ko to wairua ki to Atua,
Nana nei nga mea katoa.

A translation of this is:

Grow up and thrive
For the days destined to you,
Your hands to the tools of the Pakeha
To provide physical sustenance,
Your heart to the treasures of your Maori ancestors
As a diadem for your brow,
Your soul to your God
To whom all things belong.

Sir Apirana Ngata was well educated in the worlds of both Maori and Pakeha. These words encapsulate the vision that he wanted to pass on to succeeding generations: they were to learn, to take hold of all the tools that would help them to prosper. How real are these words for today's generations?

Ko wai ahau? (Who am I?)
My name is Turi Hollis and I am the Ecumenical Chaplain at Canterbury University. Although I do not have academic qualifications in the field of education, I have an interest in education for Maori that spans many years. In recent years, from 1995 until June last year, I was an advisor on Maori education to the Education and Training Support Agency, now called Skill New Zealand. In this role I had opportunities to have an in-put into the development of educational policies for the educating of Maori. As chaplain here at Canterbury I am privileged to share the lives of many of the Maori students and learn how they are faring in this institution.

My experience as a child
A story that I have often repeated about myself concerns an incident that occurred when I was in standard 2, at Allenton Primary School in Ashburton. It was the end of the day and there was a bit of time to fill in before we could go home. The teacher decided to go around the class and ask everyone what they wanted to do when they left school. When it came to my turn I said that I wanted to be either a lawyer or a diplomat. The teacher laughed. She thought it was hilarious that I should think of becoming either of those things. I remember the words that she said quite clearly:

"Don't be stupid, where did you get those ideas from? You're a Maori and the only thing a Maori is good at is standing at the end of a shovel. Forget any of those high-faluting ideas you've got!!"

As a child of eight or nine, I was devastated. The other kids in the class laughed and made fun of me. The teacher was quite serious in what she said and reiterated it to me several times during the year. I ran away from school as often as I could, only to have my mother chase me down the street with a willow stick shouting: "Get to school!!" My parents were of the generation where the teacher was always right. If anything went wrong it was always our fault, not the teacher's. This was even the case when one of my sisters returned home from school one day with a whelp mark on her face. Her teacher hated Maori. On this day she lost control and whacked my sister across the face with a ruler, calling her all the black language she could think of.

My mother's first language was Maori. It was forbidden to speak Maori within the school grounds that she attended on the East Coast. As a consequence of the punishment that was inflicted on her whenever she spoke Maori at school, in her later life she always got tongue-tied when it came to speaking Maori in a conversation. She had no problem singing Te Reo but she avoided getting into conversations.

My father's mother spoke only Maori but my father was brought up with both English and Maori because his father spoke English very well. My father, however, forbade the use of Maori in our home unless it was waiata or haka and even then we had to have good reason for it. My father had developed this attitude because his school teachers had convinced him that knowing and using English was the only way to get ahead in this world.

I am pleased to tell you that despite these teachers and our experiences in the compulsory education system, my sister and I survived. I actually became a diplomat for Aotearoa/New Zealand after completing a masters degree in history from the University of Waikato. Some years later I also gained a Bachelor of Theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity. As a mature student my sister Tai was able to complete a degree in nursing at Manukau Polytechnic. Out of the ten children in our whanau (family), however, we have been the only two to complete university study.

Current Situation of Maori at Universities in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In the 1998 report by Te Puni Kokiri on Progress Towards Closing Social and Economic Gaps between Maori and Non-Maori, the report states that:

One of the key features of Maori development during the past five years has been the increase in the number of Maori participating in all levels of education. Since 1992, Maori enrolments in early childhood education increased by 26.1% and Maori tertiary enrolments by 29.8%

Table 1: Number of Maori enrolled in formal education programmes

Source: Progress Towards Closing Social and Economic Gaps Between Maori and Non-Maori, Table 1, p10.