For Immediate Release June 30, 2004
From NZEI Te Riu Roa Media Release
NZEI Te Riu Roa Holds Hui In Motueka
Around 200 NZEI Te Riu Roa members will gather at Te Awhina Marae in Motueka this Saturday (July 3) for the start of
Hui-a-Tau, the education union’s annual hui held to discuss Maori education and Maori issues.
NZEI Te Riu Roa has 43,000 members working as teachers and principals in primary, intermediate and area schools, as
teachers in early childhood, as support staff in primary and secondary schools, as special education staff in early
childhood centres, primary and secondary schools and as school advisers.
Hui-a-Tau runs from Saturday July 3 to Tuesday July 6.
“It is a chance for NZEI Te Riu Roa members to focus on Maori education and Maori issues,” says Laures Park, who as the
union’s Matua Takawaenga is responsible for Maori members and Maori education.
“It’s also a great opportunity to spend time with other members working in Maori education.”
“We have members working in early childhood centres, in primary schools, in area schools, in secondary schools. Some are
in mainstream centres and schools, others work entirely in Maori.
Hui-a-Tau is a chance for all of them to meet and mingle and to talk about providing quality education for the tamariki
Maori of Aotearoa,” says Laures Park.
Reports will be presented on NZEI Te Riu Roa’s Maori Education Strategy, Te Rautaki Matauranga Maori, which looks at
ways of helping to raise the achievement levels of tamariki Maori, and on Te Reo Maori For All, the union’s plan to
support the Government’s Maori Language Strategy, which aims to have the majority of Maori proficient in te reo by 2028.
There will be workshops for members working in early childhood, as support staff in schools, in special education and as
Resource Teachers Maori.
Hui-a-Tau organisers have also recognised that there is a great deal of interest among Maori in the foreshore and seabed
issue. Guest speakers include Rita Powick, a member of the Marlborough iwi, who’s foreshore and seabed claim sparked the
current debate and Mereana Pitman, a key figure in the foreshore and seabed hikoi.
Other speakers include NZEI Te Riu Roa National President, Colin Tarr and Alice Derbridge, from the Ministry of
Education, who is involved the Numeracy Develoment Project and the Curriculum Stocktake.
ENDS