26/11/2022
Fortrust Education, sco 66 , 1st floor, Sector 7 , Panchkula ( Tricity Chandigarh) Call : 94172-56789
Suraya Goss, Te Ätihaunui-a-PÄpÄrangi, graduated yesterday after completing her entire degree in te reo MÄori.
The 21-year-old graduated in ManawatÅ« with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in MÄtauranga MÄori (MÄori Knowledge).
āWithin the current BA degree and the compulsory papers that are part of it, I found it essentially hard to write in English what I could articulate in te reo MÄori more effectively,ā Suraya explains.
So she decided to ask her lecturer if she could write the assignments in te reo.
āI was pleasantly surprised at how positive and encouraging the response was, only because it wasn't common knowledge that you could write assignments in te reo MÄori. I should've known it was possible, considering it is an official language here in Aotearoa, right?ā
Completing her first assignment in te reo gave Suraya a sense of humility and achievement for upholding the mana of te reo.
āI then set myself the challenge that I wanted to carry this on and complete the whole degree in te reo MÄori.ā
Suraya, who was born in Feilding but grew up in Kimbolton and Palmerston North, first began to learn te reo when she was in the bilingual unit at Monrad Intermediate (now known as Te Kura Waenga o Tirohanga) and was fluent by the time she finished high school at MANUKURA.
Completing her degree in te reo was particularly significant for Suraya as she descends from generations where te reo MÄori has been lost within her whÄnau.
āMy motivation was to re-instil this taonga within my whÄnau with the hopes of breaking intergenerational cycles that pave the way for future generations to come,ā Suraya says.
Suraya is eager to share her story so current and future students know that there is the opportunity to write in te reo at university. She is continuing her studies through a Master of Arts degree, which will research how we can enhance and enrich the use of te reo in tertiary education.
Massey University Maori