Tauira Rawiri McLean says the support he received from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa while dealing with a family tragedy last year helped him achieve his study goal and progress to Te Pūtaketanga o te Reo, the Level 4 full immersion reo programme.

“It was a difficult time for me and the whānau, but I was able to complete the programme and continue on my reo journey this year,” says Rawiri.

In 2023 he enrolled in both He Pī ka Pao at the Tauranga campus of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and a full-time level 1 – 6 reo course elsewhere to kickstart his reo journey. Rawiri was forced to forgo the intensive level 1 – 6 reo course because of the family tragedy.

“It wasn’t feasible to take a month off the intensive programme that had daily classes and expect to be able to come back and pick up where I had I left things. Meanwhile, with He Pī ka Pao, I had the support from my kaiako to catch up on lessons and tauira services to get me through,” he says.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa works within a comprehensive services model connecting tauira with tailored support they may require while studying. These services are provided in-house by trained kaimahi (staff) or through external service providers.

Tauira wellbeing is at the heart of the services model, and kaimahi go to all lengths to give tauira the best chance at educational success.

Tauira are offered face-to-face support from dedicated Student Support Advisors based at each campus, and are contacted via phone, text, or email from Tauira Journey Coordinators for additional wellbeing checks.

When talking to the Student Support Advisors of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa about his mental wellness, Rawiri knew he could trust who he was talking to.

Student Support Advisors are experienced in social work, psychology or education, and Rawiri found solace talking to the advisor assigned to his class.

“It was so good to talk to someone who was gentle and knew how to tautoko your concerns with aroha. It was like talking to your uncle who wasn’t your uncle. It really helped to have someone who could put things into a te ao Māori perspective,” he says.

Growing up in te ao Pākeha meant that Rawiri had no reo Māori knowledge of his own, which was felt at his marae following the passing of his grandmother in 2019, and then his great grandmother in 2021. The absence of these great wāhine in his life and the emptiness he felt with the lack of reo was the awakening he needed to enrol at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and study reo Māori.

“The atmosphere is beautiful. Learning the reo here feels like how it should be. You can imagine that this is how it would have been in the time of our tīpuna. The classes, support services - everything is steeped in mātauranga Māori,” says Rawiri.

Find out more about our reo Māori programmes.