5 minutes with Toni Rewiri: Te Taharangi – Director Māori Success

Toni Rewiri recently started in the newly-created role of Te Taharangi – Director Māori Success, on a 12-month secondment from her Kaihautū role. We sat down with her to hear about the opportunities she sees to support our Māori students to succeed and what her priorities are over the next few months.

Congratulations on your appointment as our new Te Taharangi – Director Māori Success. Can you tell us about your previous role with Unitec and why this new role appealed?

I’ve been with Unitec since July 2018, in the role of Kaihautū. This role encourages the forging and maintenance of relationships with partners – both Schools and service teams. As Kaihautū, we remain cognisant of Te Noho Kotahitanga and support the Unitec whānau to embed the principles through academic delivery, organisational frameworks and into our workplace. For some we acknowledge that this is an uncomfortable space, as it’s unfamiliar but we let them know it’s ok to be uncomfortable and that we will walk alongside them on this journey.

Te Taharangi role appealed because Māori success is very high on my agenda. I’m currently working towards completing a thesis based on Māori success. It seeks to examine the culturally responsive and relational pedagogies/androgogies when working with Māori students in a mainstream tertiary setting. It will involve collecting the voices of staff and students, to hear their experiences. Here at Unitec I see that we have many documents designed to support Māori students to succeed, but Māori students are still consistently featuring in the lower levels of educational achievement. I’m keen to understand why this is so.

I’m thrilled to be in this position and am focused on learning what our role is in supporting students to succeed, and how to support our wider Unitec whānau to work towards a collaborative understanding of what we need to do.

It’s a privilege to have exposure to the leadership around me. Our leaders unknowingly give us a lot of koha – I observe and learn from their behaviour and put that learning in my kete. I especially like the level of transparency that Merran and the ELT have committed to, and the way they make themselves vulnerable by delivering confronting messages to us in an open and honest way. Our ELT is also very supportive of Te Noho Kotahitanga partnership.

What are some of the opportunities you see in this role?

I was just reading an article last night that focused on three key areas that support Māori students to succeed. The interviews completed for the article drew out three broad themes, one stood out for me and can be described as whanaungatanga (sense of family connection). Whilst immediate whānau support is paramount whilst studying, success was also supported by having a programme within the institute that provides a whānau space, a space where students see themselves reflected; where they feel comfortable as Māori and have opportunities to share their cultural capital.

The other metaphor we find opportunities in is koha (offering, contribution) and for this context I am looking forward to working with students to understand where the cracks in the path are – that’s their koha to us – to let us know, because we don’t know what we don’t know. Our koha back to students will be to smooth over the cracks.

I’m excited about opportunities presented through the Māori Success Strategy, Team Diamonds and ADEPs. Professional development programmes with a Mātauranga Māori lens are underway and we look forward to engaging with our Unitec whānau.

What can we expect in the next few months?

We’re launching our new Māori Success Strategy over the next few months. It’ll be a collaborative process where alongside our team and partners we’ll consider the data we collect and provide strategies to improve Māori success. We’ll be working through action plans with staff – introducing the strategy and getting an idea of how they can contribute.

What do you get up to outside of work?

I spend a lot of my weekends watching kids sport. My daughter Iwi (13) plays netball and my son Kahuki (16) plays rugby. I also manage Iwi’s team so that keeps me busy.

I’m big on creating experiences for our kids, we let them choose places in New Zealand to travel to or events to attend. So far they’ve experienced Matatini, a few concerts, travelled to many places in the North Island and a few in the South Island. Whilst they’ve been overseas, I want them to see and know Aotearoa first. We also keep them grounded by returning regularly to Omaio, East Cape and Whakatāne. This ensures they remain connected to their whakapapa (familial links).

I try to fit in tennis games during the week and have been participating in a boot camp at my local beach. Both my husband and I are studying so it’s full steam ahead!