Stepping Out
It’s Saturday morning – a time when most teenagers would be sleeping in or, for some, just coming home from a night on the town. Add to that a layer of miserable rain and bone-chilling cold and it is a wonder that 30 bright-eyed secondary students turn up to trudge around the shattered central city and listen to professionals talk about career prospects.
The Quake Careers Hīkoi gets underway with introductions from Māori tradespeople, geologists, architects, engineers, health workers and urban planning experts to the Canterbury-based students.
The event has been organised by Te Tapuae o Rehua, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Lincoln University and the University of Canterbury with support from Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. The event is part of the Get on the Waka initiative, which aims to attract Canterbury students into tertiary study at local institutions.
Te Tapaue o Rehua organiser Hēmi Te Hēmi (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Kōroki and Rarotonga/Mangaiia) says one of the hīkoi goals was to help local Māori youth to align their study with disciplines contributing to the recovery.
“Talking to these experts allows them to grow the understanding of our future workforce demands and reinforce the importance of how they can contribute to the quake recovery,” he says.
After the hīkoi, the posse will finish with lectures and discussions at Te Puna Wānaka, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT).
The Christchurch earthquakes have left a $30 billion recovery bill. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon says planning needs to happen now so that once the rebuild starts in earnest, young Māori are equipped to be part of it.
“In the city council’s ‘Share an Idea’ initiative, which went out to the community and asked people what they wanted to see in the new Christchurch, there were a couple of overriding themes. One was that people wanted to see more integration of the two cultures, Māori and Pākehā, in the rebuild.
Solomon says the time is right for students to understand what future skills could be needed, and how they can gain these skills and contribute to the recovery.
“Today’s students have a unique opportunity to influence the city and embody Māori aspirations in the rebuild,” he says.
During the hīkoi, the students meet and talk with Ngāi Tahu professionals who have created successful careers within their fields.
Themes explored on the day included basing the new city on traditional Māori pathways, building a more sustainable city, recognising Māori principles and taking care of communities.
Architect Perry Royal (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa), who designed Te Puna Wānaka at CPIT, shares a story he thought students might be able to relate to.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do at school and I spent most of my time sitting on a surfboard waiting for the next wave,” Royal tells the group.
It was only when his father, Bill, who was also an architect, asked him to do some work for him and he sat at the kitchen table surrounded by drawings that something resonated for him.
“I always wanted to embed Māori culture into the work that I did because there are very few buildings where you can look around and say: ‘That’s Māori architecture.’ I wanted to create that spine-tingling feeling of: ‘That’s who we are.’”
There are still a couple of years of secondary schooling left for Year 11 student Thomas Smitheram (Ngāi Tahu), but he says listening to Perry Royal share his passion for engaging his culture through architecture was very informative.
“I wanted to do this hīkoi to open up my opportunities a bit. I like doing design and building at school, so it was interesting to hear about architecture and property management as career choices. It’s something different I hadn’t thought about.”
Thomas says he was looking forward to being able to make a contribution to rebuilding the city.
The Head of the School of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University, Neil Challenger, has a similar message.
“We need to see the ‘browning’ of the central city. The question is: how are you going to fill the holes and at the same time embrace kaupapa Māori and give it flesh?”
He says proper healing within the city would only take place once there was a stronger connection with the whenua.
During the hīkoi, students go to the site dedicated to Tautahi. Ōtautahi (of Tautahi) was originally the name of a specific site in central Christchurch, a settlement situated on present day Kilmore Street near the fire station.
Te Potiki Tautahi was one of the original Ngāi Tahu people to settle in the Canterbury region. He is buried in the urupā on the site of the present-day St Luke’s Church vicarage on the corner of Kilmore and Manchester Streets.
Although health seems like an unlikely industry to have on the hīkoi, the organisers wanted to look at all the professionals who will be needed in the recovery. Nationally there is a shortage of Māori health professionals and with the earthquake, the situation is even more acute in Canterbury.
Māori health workforce development programme Kia Ora Hauora representatives talk of their desire to recruit over 1000 Māori into the health sector, not just as doctors and nurses but across the entire health sector.
Several students show an interest in health services as a career, and Cazna Luke (Ngāi Tahu – Kāti Waewae, Ngāpuhi), who promotes Kia Ora Hauora told students it is an immensely rewarding path.
This was a message Aranui High School student Isaac Wilkes (Ngāi Tahu) enjoys hearing. The Year 13 student finds it encouraging that instead of just casual labouring jobs there are many other alternatives he may consider that previously, he thought would be out of his reach.
“I really enjoy dance, music and theatre and I would like to bring more opportunities for that in the future,” says Isaac.
Standing in the shadows of one of Ngāi Tahu Property’s recent developments, the Christchurch Civic Buiding, Shannon Goldsmith (Ngāi Tahu) recounts his journey from high school to becoming a property manager for the iwi property company.
Goldsmith left school without attaining university entrance and he admits that this made his journey longer and more difficult.
“I ended up studying at three different tertiary institutions over six years, all because I failed to get University Entrance.”
He completed a diploma of business at the Southern Institute of Technology. He then cross-credited his diploma when he turned 20 and gained entry into the University of Otago as an adult student.
While studying commerce at the University of Otago, Goldsmith applied for and was successfully awarded the inaugural Ngāi Tahu Property cadetship.
To take on the cadetship, Goldsmith had to move to Ōtautahi to finish his studies at Lincoln University. The scholarship offered him $5000 a year, along with the opportunity to gain work experience in the property industry, including stints at Ngāi Tahu Property.
“It was a fantastic opportunity and a great way to get a foot into the industry.”
For Ellesmere College Year 12 student Sam Milne (Ngāi Tahu – Kāti Moki), the hīkoi was about more than just career possibilities. “It’s made me more aware of the situation in Christchurch and how we can put a Māori aspect back into the city. We’ve had the Pākehā aspect for so long, and now it’s time to merge it all together so our Māori heritage doesn’t die out.”
From engineering and seismology to cultural heritage and the trades, the speakers open up a world of possibilities for the students, including civic leadership.
“I want Mayor Bob Parker’s job,” says Sam. “I want to be able to say I changed people’s lives.”
Subscribe Via RSS
March 3rd, 2012 at 4:11 am
Great Article. We used Cheap Gatwick Parking for our trip. It was so useful not to have to try to find a parking space. It made our trip a lot more pleasant. I highly recommend them!