Te Ao Māori business and building for Taranaki

WITT’s management and construction programmes have undergone changes with te ao Māori at the heart.  This has led to WITT signing Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with Te Heru Māpara and Ōkahu-Inuawai Hapū.

Te Heru Māpara is a private training establishment (PTE) which delivers foundational training for their uri (kin).  The memorandum with Te Heru Māpara reflects a redesigned version of the New Zealand Certificate in Business (First Line Management) Level 4 programme to include referencing Māori business contexts and te ao Māori principles to be taught on the marae.

Anaru Marshall, CEO for Te Kahui o Māru Trust (owners of Te Heru Māpara) told the gathering at last week’s signing; “When we took on the PTE, we didn’t want to be just the recipient of education anymore.  We want to develop education and training and deliver for our people and other iwi, hapū as well.”

Haki Keogh, Te Tumu Whakawhanake Mātauranga (General Manager) for Te Heru Māpara and an experienced education policy expert, says the MoU is "the fruit of discussions within iwi about bringing education to our people in a way that makes sense.”

Construction Training

Training uri of the hapū to build houses and supporting them into employment are some of the drivers behind Ōkahu-Inuawai of South Taranaki iwi Ngā Ruahine signing an MOU with WITT recently.

The need for homes is already well-established and this initiative uses WITT’s New Zealand Certificate in Construction (Level 3) programme to achieve these goals.  The completed houses will then be relocated onto hapū whenua near Hawera to create papakāinga (village).

The agreements between WITT and Taranaki iwi for the delivery of business and building qualifications shows how education is evolving to better meet the needs of Māori, say the parties involved.

Tina Parata, of Ōkahu-Inuawai hapū committee, says six rangatahi have already signed up for the hāpu-based construction programme that starts in February 2025. She says this is more than a course. “They [rangatahi] are building homes for whānau, for their people. They will be able to drive past and say: ‘I built that!’ This is about investing in our future generations.”

WITT Executive Director Olivia Hall said, “Relationships are incredibly important because they come with different ideas and new expertise. Successful relationships require trust and confidence and these MoUs put in writing our commitment to support each other and grow together from there.  It’s taken a while to reach this point and now that we’ve signed, this is when the hard work begins and the magic happens.”

Caption: Signing of a MoU between WITT and Te Heru Māpara - (from left) Anaru Marshall, Haki Keogh - both of Te Heru Māpara, Olivia Hall – WITT CE, Sam Tamapara – Chair of Te Kahui o Māru Trust, and Gloria Campbell, Regional Commissioner for Social Development at MSD (Ministry of Social Development).