Moana Tautua always had a passion for Te Reo Māori.
She first found her passion for the language while studying, something that her te reo teacher at the time recognised.
Now, she’s using her passion in her role as a teacher at Onehunga’s Te Papapa School in Auckland. Tautua has created an entirely new junior bilingual unit at her school this year. By Term 3, her students were reading in both English and te reo.
It’s this mahi that she has been recognised for in the National Excellence in Teaching Awards. Tautua, only in her fourth year of teaching, was awarded with an Early Career Award.
Tautua, of Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Cook Islands descent, told TVNZ1’s Breakfast this morning she took the long way around to become a teacher. She worked in media before turning to teaching.
But, she said the job had always been on her mind. Tautua left school at 17 after her koro became unwell.
“Tikanga Māori, someone always needs to be with our sick and that was me at the time,” she said.
“Just the amount of time I had off school being with him didn’t allow me to finish.”
Straight after school, Tautua became a teacher aide at a kōhanga reo with the support of her Māori teacher. She then started teaching at a Sunday school while working in media.
“She was an amazing teacher and I think she also instilled the love of te reo in me.
"It was something I always wanted to give back and pass on. It’s not something you keep for yourself," she said.
“I think I’ve just come full circle … I just wanted it to become a full time thing."
She said most of the impact she made on her students this year was during the Covid-19 lockdown. Tautua said the lockdown gave her a “huge opportunity” to build relationships with her students and their whānau because she was new to Te Papapa.
With the help of the bilingual programme, students were now using te reo widely around her school, she said.
“It’s incredibly overwhelming,” she said about winning the award.
“I’m extremely proud to acknowledge not just my own mahi, but the mahi of my own tamariki and the whānau that support them.”
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