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A programme that has fostered the oratorical skills of a generation of te reo speakers is to close.
The final 33 students of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo will graduate tomorrow at Rangiaowhia Marae, on the Raroera Campus of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in Hamilton.
The elite programme was started 15 years ago by Sir Timoti Karetu, Professor Pou Temara and Dr Wharehuia Milroy, who died in May.
About 350 students have gone through the invitation-only full immersion te reo Māori and tikanga course over the years, with many of them now among the most highly regarded te reo Māori speakers and educators in Aotearoa.
Te Wānanga o Aotearoa chief executive Te Ururoa Flavell says it had been an honour for the organisation to provide a home for the programme.
Te Panekiretanga tutors Pania Papa and Leon Blake are developing a new Master's degree in te reo Māori excellence under the mantle of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
Ms Papa says the new programme will focus on the principles upheld by Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo for the past 15 years – ko te reo kia tika, ko te reo kia rere, ko te reo kia Māori – with an additional focus on community language revitalisation planning.
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