Healthy future for Cook Island teacher

Teiā Mataara Potoru came to Aotearoa for her health, decided to fill her time with study and is now teaching at the country’s first Cook Island bilingual unit, at Mangere East Primary school in Tāmaki Makaurau.

While she had 18 years experience as a teacher in the Cook Islands before moving to Aotearoa in 2018, “when you come here you need to do a year or 2 of study before you can teach,” she says.

But after a year at the University of Auckland, it “didn’t set my heart on fire,” she says.

“I've always been passionate about language and culture and that’s what moved me into education. But I didn't hear the language and culture that I was intending to hear, it was more about the theories of people from outside New Zealand. I was like, why are we studying this when we have our own people here in Aotearoa, here in Pasifika.”

She took the following year off to deal with some health issues before switching her studies to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in Māngere, where she spent 3 years completing He Korowai Ākonga – Bachelor of Teaching (Primary Education).

“It was supposed to be 2 years (because of previous studies), but I wanted to take the whole 3 years because I thought the first year was not enough. It was just a bite of the apple, but you want to finish the whole apple, so I stayed for the whole 3 years. I enjoyed it and got to learn so much."

“I know that language is the foundation of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, the culture, the traditions, and that's what drove me to go there. I wanted to have a greater understanding of the similarities and the differences of the languages of Aotearoa and the Cook Islands, and how the cultures are similar, yet different. It was easier for me to understand where they come from language-wise, where they come from culture-wise, the way they do things because there are similarities.”

She says the programme provided the perfect preparation before entering the classroom.

“Although it is driven in the Māori world view context, what works for Māori works for others, so I saw it in that context. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa prepped us really well with the Māori context and now that we’re in schools teaching we get to be the ones to lead with te ao Māori views.”

Towards the end of her degree, Teiā was approached to work at several schools before settling on Māngere East Primary, and while she’s part of the Cook Islands bilingual unit, she finds herself often gravitating towards the Māori bilingual unit.

“I have so much that I learnt from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. They (the Māori bilingual unit) are surprised that I actually know a lot about te reo Māori and the Māori world view. I always reflect back on my journey at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and my teachers and my colleagues but the language, the culture, the people, that's what drove me to go to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and I loved it.”

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