NorthTec – Tai Tokerau Wānanga and Ngāti Rēhia sign up to enhanced partnership

NorthTec – Tai Tokerau Wānanga and Ngāti Rēhia took a step forward in their partnership with the signing of a new agreement last week at Te Puna o Te Mātauranga Marae, Raumanga.

Under the agreement, Ngāti Rēhia will take on responsibility for managing Te Pou o Manako, NorthTec’s Kerikeri campus. Kipa Munro of Ngāti Rēhia will take on the role of Kaiwhakahaere Mātua, Campus Operations Manager.

Ngāti Rēhia has been based at Te Pou o Manako since 2018, when the partnership with NorthTec began. The new agreement takes the partnership into an operational mode with the aim of meeting the needs of whānau, hapū and the local community through programme delivery.

Toa Faneva, NorthTec Te Ahurei Chief Executive, told the group from Ngāti Rēhia: “This has been a really long journey for you. The importance of what we’re doing here with Ngāti Rēhia and Te Pou o Manako is the development of a model that we aim to replicate across all our campuses - our vision is to see our campuses co-managed and co-delivered.

“It is a success not for ourselves but for our whānau, who have aspirations and desires that they want to achieve. When we think about what is important to our whānau we must reflect that in terms of what we’re offering. This is about bringing Tai Tokerau Wānanga to support those aspirations.

“How do we shift what we do here in terms of Tai Tokerau Wānanga to really lean in to support those aspirations? We don’t have a lot of money and we have a lot of challenges. It’s working together that sees us through - the importance of us in joining with Ngāti Rēhia is to demonstrate what is possible if you do things our way.”

Kipa Munro said the partnership began with Ngāti Rēhia naming the campus Te Pou o Manako in 2018: “It was like putting a stake in the ground for all of your hopes, dreams and aspirations, with a kaupapa that runs across the site. When we signed the original agreement we were looking at eventually managing the site and bringing in our own programmes.

“We all need to be courageous and have a look at innovative ways that we can deliver Mātauranga Māori in a way that it is acknowledged, accepted and able to be learned in that way. We bring a hapū perspective through this relationship with Tai Tokerau Wānanga which we believe will benefit our community.”

The Tai Tokerau Wānanga-Ngāti Rēhia partnership has so far seen the delivery of courses in Te Reo Māori, Mātauranga Māori and Whakairo.