Robert Diamond: Te reo the key

Tikipunga high School student Robert Diamond is walking the talk.
Last week he won the Nga Manu Korero o Te Tai Tokerau oratory award for a speech about language being the essence of Maori life.
Robert drew inspiration for his speech from the man who gave rise to the annual contest for students speaking in English, Maori and bilingually - the late Sir James Henare, who said the future for Maori lay in keeping the language and customs alive but moving forward in a modern world.
Robert's winning speech in last week's competition hosted by Okaihau College was based on Sir James' quote: "Ko te reo Maori te mauri o te mana Maori" or "The language is the life essence to Maori existence".
Robert has been a placegetter in every category he's entered in Nga Manu since 2008 but this is his first overall win.
The Year 13 student has been a strong supporter of Maori youth achievement at Tikipunga High School and in his community for several years.
 At school the te reo speaker and competent orator speaks at functions, leads powhiri, and meets and greets special guests.
"I feel that's expected of me, and I respond with willingness," he said.
Earlier in the day Robert had welcomed Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples and the party's Tai Tokerau byelection candidate Solomon Tipene to the school. The day before it was Labour's Kelvin Davis and Mana Party's Hone Harawira. He takes it in his stride.
"I've had quite a political time in the past couple of days, plus yesterday I was interviewed by Maori TV and today I'm being interviewed by you," Robert says.
Tikipunga High teacher and Nga Manu Korero facilitator Freda Mokaraka says, "He's a Diamond by name and diamond by nature."
Ms Mokaraka is used to dealing with talented young te reo speakers but says Robert is on another level. Not a "potential" leader, she corrects the reporter's suggestion: "Leadership is not something you are given as a label but something that you show by how you live and act, and it comes from within."
She tells the story of Robert coming runner-up in last year's Nga Manu competition.
He had discovered only the night before he had prepared his speech for the wrong category and would be automatically disqualified if he used it. He hurriedly read up on a different topic but had no time to prepare and learn a speech before the next day.
"In the end he ad-libbed. He went out there and did it on the spot and still came second. Seeing that happen really made me realise we are dealing with a special talent," Ms Mokaraka said.
Robert shrugs when the reporter suggests he's an old soul in a young man.
He doesn't party-up much with kids his own age, he admits. It's kapahaka not hip hop he chooses; for company he prefers to hang out with the kaumatua on the marae.
"As far as te reo goes, I'm mostly self-taught," he says. "If you'd met me five years ago I wouldn't have been able to give a speech in Maori.
"I always wanted to be able to, though, so I began by going back to my marae, listening to the kaumatua and kuia and learning from them. That was the foundation of my journey toward te reo."
Robert's speech at this year's Nga Manu was in the senior bilingual category, a section only Tai Tokerau includes in speech competitions. Robert says he can use to best effect meaningful words from both languages. Some things just don't work properly in English alone, he says.
"It might sound so ordinary in English but when you can also use Maori you are adding the essence to it.
"You can give something more value in te reo when otherwise you might be searching for the power of that same meaning in English."
Robert is becoming well known in circles where powerful Maori leaders meet and where defining policies are made.
He's an ambassador student in the Te Kotahitanga programme designed to raise Maori achievement in schools after a damning NCEA report two years ago.
He also represents Northland youth in the New Zealand networking decision-making programme run by Ministry of Youth Development. He calls his regular visits to government departments and Wellington "my work".
When he travels around New Zealand for work or whanau reasons he is often greeted as "the gifted one", he says. People have told him they see him carrying the wairua of the ancestors.
"In certain circumstances, I do feel that. My shoulders get a bit heavy," he says. "But I don't see what I have as a gift."
He sees it as a vocation.
Robert is off to Waikato University next year where he intends studying education and law. He has his eye on a double degree, heading toward a possible career working on strategies and policies to further enable Maori youth to achieve.
As his winning speech at Nga Manu Korero o Te Tai Tokerau reflected, there lies a future - embraced in te reo, and going forward.