Far North Kahika (Mayor) Moko Tepania graduated with with a Master of Education degree with First Class Honours specialising in Māori medium education. Supplied
Far North Kahika (Mayor) Moko Tepania graduated with with a Master of Education degree with First Class Honours specialising in Māori medium education. Supplied
Far North Kahika (Mayor) Moko Tepania has been chosen to address more than 800 on Thursday when he graduates from the University of Waikato.
Tepania, 33, will graduate at the University of Waikato on Thursday with a Master of Education degree with First Class Honours specialising in Māori medium education.
“I’m a kid from a dusty gravel road in the middle of nowhere,” Tepania said.
“Graduating shows that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. You can do anything you make up your mind to do and bring that home to your people.”
The mayor (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa/ Te Rarawa) has been selected by university faculty leadership as the sole student representative to speak at his graduation ceremony about his experience as a student, what he got out of his studies and some lasting advice for fellow graduates.
His Master of Education dissertation focused on using maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar for learning te reo Māori in education. He graduates from Te Kura Toi Tangata School of Education within the university’s Division of Education.
“The research I undertook affirmed that the maramataka is holistic and personal and is an intergenerational form of cultural knowledge transmission that we can use to excel, just as our tūpuna used it,” Tepania said.
He chose te reo Māori as a subject at Pompallier Catholic College and fell in love with the language, and this led him on a pathway to become a Māori language teacher, working at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe before becoming mayor.
Senior students from the kura helped with his Master of Education research.
“I love the te ao Māori notions of success - ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini. Success is not mine alone, but that of many. Surrounded by whānau, friends, fellow classmates, and our esteemed university top shelf, how amazing it is to graduate.”
His graduation is the culmination of a journey starting at the university as an undergraduate 15 years ago.
Tepania completed a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) and a Bachelor of Arts in Te Reo Māori at the University of Waikato and entered the teaching profession in 2014.
He was born in Whangārei and grew up in Hikurangi but spent all his holidays in remote north Hokianga’s Mitimiti, which he is linked to. He is also strongly connected to Whangaroa as part of his close ties with the Far North throughout his life.
Far North Kahika Moko Tepania at his welcoming pōwhiri in October 2022.
Tepania’s research into the use of maramataka has brought major change for Far North District Council (FNDC) governance.
Traditionally-used formal council meeting timetables have been rescheduled to better match the moon’s cycles and meeting’s purpose, which he said is better for good decision-making.
Council meetings used to be six-weekly, on a set day of the week. They’re now four-weekly, in sync with the moon and within that on differing days of their scheduled week, depending on what is most favourable.
Tepania said the phases just before the new moon and just before and after the full moon were most auspicious for being in the right frame of mind for this purpose.
“We had an extraordinary council meeting that was outside that timing. The meeting went terribly,” he said.
Tepania was first elected to FNDC in 2019. He was next elected as Far North Mayor in 2022 and bestowed with the title of kahika, the tall and strong native kahikatea tree at his council’s Waitangi Treaty Grounds pōwhiri.
He was elected from the council’s Māori ward Ngā Tai o Tokerau and helms a council of 11, including his role. He is also a Local Government New Zealand board member.
