Te wiki te reo Māori

Last week was a busy and exciting week for our senior students, with teams travelling across the country to take part in Winter Tournament Week. Our basketball team placed 10th, hockey placed 8th, football travelled to Christchurch and achieved an excellent 5th place, while our netball team placed 14th. While results are always a part of competitive sport, these experiences are about so much more. Tournament Week provides our students with opportunities to challenge themselves, develop resilience, build friendships and experience the pride that comes from representing Carmel. We are very proud of the way our students represented the College.

As I write this newsletter, we currently have 52 students competing at AIMs Games. We look forward to seeing how their week unfolds and, regardless of the outcomes on the scoreboard, hope they have a fantastic experience. For many of our students, AIMs is an opportunity for personal growth that extends well beyond their sporting performance. Being away from home, immersed in a team environment for an entire week, requires independence, adaptability, courage and a willingness to support others. These are experiences that stay with young people long after the final whistle.

Next week we will celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week, with this year’s theme, Ake, Ake, Ake – A Forever Language. I have been reflecting on this theme and what it means for us as a Carmel community. Te reo Māori has a past, a present and, importantly, a future.

At a recent assembly, I spoke to our students about the many different cultures that make up Carmel and reminded them that culture is part of who we are; where we come from, the people who have shaped us, the languages we speak, the traditions we carry and the stories passed down to us. If we are proud to call Aotearoa home, then we should also be proud of the language that belongs to this land. Te reo Māori is part of the story of Aotearoa, and therefore it is part of our story too.

We all have a role to play in ensuring te reo Māori continues to thrive. This does not mean we all need to become fluent speakers. It can be as simple as using kia ora, making the effort to pronounce people’s names and our place names correctly, listening when te reo Māori is spoken, joining in with waiata, asking questions and, importantly, being willing to have a go even when we might make mistakes.

This sits beautifully alongside our Mercy values. Āwhinatanga encourages us to serve by making te reo visible and heard. Whakaute reminds us that language carries history, identity, whakapapa and belonging. Māia challenges us to be brave enough to have a go. Tika reminds us that every culture and language has value, while Manaakitanga calls us to create a community where people feel welcomed, valued and that they belong.

Our Mercy heritage also provides us with a powerful connection to this story. In 1850, eight Sisters of Mercy travelled for eight months by ship from Ireland to Aotearoa. They were coming to serve the people of this land, and during their journey Bishop Pompallier taught them Māori so that they could communicate with the community they were coming to serve. These women demonstrated extraordinary courage and a willingness to learn something unfamiliar because they understood that service begins with connection.

That same spirit remains relevant to us today. Sometimes māia is demonstrated in the big moments, but sometimes it is simply having the courage to try something unfamiliar, to learn a new word, to ask about another person’s culture or to stand alongside someone whose experience is different from our own.

At Carmel, our Poutama Reo programme provides staff and students with an opportunity to build their confidence and knowledge in te reo Māori. Already, 250 staff and students have gained their Green Level badge, and it is wonderful to see our community embracing this opportunity.

I hope Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori will be a time for all of us to reflect on what Ake, Ake, Ake might mean for us. It is about looking back and respecting the stories that have brought us here, recognising the people, cultures and languages that make up our community today, and looking forward to considering what we can do to ensure the language and stories of Aotearoa continue into the future.

We have a responsibility to the generations who come after us. I hope that when they look back, they will be able to say that we helped keep te reo Māori alive, visible and valued as a language of the future.

Our sense of community has also been evident through the wonderful generosity shown in our recent fundraising initiatives. A huge thank you to everyone who supported our PTFA Calendar Fundraiser. Together, we sold an impressive 1,065 tickets and raised approximately $9,500. This money will support the PTFA Sr Mary Justine Scholarships for Year 13 graduates and improvements to our outdoor amenities.

Selling 1,065 tickets is the equivalent of every student selling one ticket, but some students went well beyond this. Congratulations to our top three sellers: Nadia Barreto, who sold 29 tickets; Francheska Montellano, who sold 32; and Gigi Albrecht, who was our top seller with an outstanding 49 tickets. Thank you to these students, and to everyone in our wider Carmel community who supported the fundraiser.

Our Cans for Christmas drive also came to a fantastic conclusion, with an amazing 3,130 cans donated. The House competition added an extra element of motivation, with McAuley winning with 890 cans. A huge congratulations also goes to our winning Atawhai form class, M5, who collected 249 cans.

Whether it is through sport, fundraising, learning te reo Māori or supporting others in our community, these experiences remind us that education is about so much more than what happens in the classroom. We want our young women to leave Carmel with strong academic foundations, but also with courage, compassion, a sense of service and an understanding of their responsibility to others. These are the qualities that help shape not only the young women they become, but also the communities they will go on to influence.