Listen Now: 
Some of the country’s top Māori students have lined up for this year’s Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards.
The awards were announced on Friday at a ceremony at Te Whare Rūnanga, at the Treaty Ground in Waitangi.
Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Awards chair Kelvin Davis says the awards, named after the first Māori to be awarded the Victoria Cross, have been expanded in recent years to include a video competition for schools to enable pupils to showcase the contribution made by Māori Battalion members they descend from, or are connected to through their wider hapū and iwi.
There were two doctoral scholarships.
Xena Tautari from Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui says the award will help her with the costs of studying at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi while continuing to live and work in Hokianga.
Her thesis topic is ‘Intergenerational changes in tikanga that relate to Kaitiakitanga ō Hokianga-nui-ā-Kupe’.
Raina Meha from Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Makino, Ngāti Kahungunu, and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki is at Victoria University of Wellington’s law faculty working on a thesis on conflicts of interest and Māori governance.
Undergraduate scholarships went to Kauri Tangohau of Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Ngāti Porou, Leigh Albert of Ngāti Hine, and Ngārewarewa Tata of Ngāitai, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Porou.
Kiriana Rhind-Reedy and Stacey Reedy, both from Ngāti Porou, won masters scholarships.
Three rangatahi won vocational education scholarships – Tawhiri Kereama from Ngāti Raukawa te au ki te Tonga, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira, who is studying plumbing, apprentice builder Reimana Prescott from Ngāti Wehiwehi, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, and trainee beauty therapist Waituhia Elers-Metuamate from Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, and Ngāti Maniapoto.
RELATED NEWS
