Veteran tutor helps keep Maori language alive

Veteran Te Reo Maori tutor Pat Bolstad came late to her "love and prime devotion" to the language after being ridiculed as a teenager by fellow Maori students for her pronunciation.
Mrs Bolstad (nee Waipuka) was born and "raised in the pakeha world" in Wairarapa, she said, with Maori spoken to her only as an admonishment from her parents.
She was at the age of 13 enrolled at Queen Victoria Maori Girls' College in Auckland, however, and gained the highest School Certificate marks in her class, she said, which she attributes to her tutor and mentor, the late Hoani Waititi.
"I still couldn't string a simple sentence together in te reo though and was ridiculed for my pronunciation of Maori words. This meant I was very reluctant to speak or read aloud in class."
After spending five years at the college, she left and worked for 18 months in the Maori Land Court section of the Maori Affairs Office in Wellington before returning home to Masterton in 1960 when the section merged with a Palmerston North office.
Back home she started work as a barmaid at the Horseshoe Tavern, where she was elected as Wairarapa delegate for the Service Worker's Union and was made a life member of the organisation.
In 1989 her parents died within five weeks of each other and the loss took a heavy toll, she said.
Aged 49 and in a move to "overcome my grief" at the death of her parents, she enrolled three months later on a Te Reo me ona Tikanga Access Course co-ordinated by Paremo Matthews and the late Mirinoa Sanford, and resigned from the Horseshoe.
Te Ataarangi was a component of the course, which is learning the language through use of Cuisenaire rods, and became a particular joy for Mrs Bolstad that attracted her to many regional and national hui focused on the format, she said.
Mrs Bolstad said matauranga Maori or knowledge, comprehension and understanding was instilled in her by course tutors that also included Hone Hurihanganui and Tawhirangi Tepu.
She and other graduates of the course were encouraged at it completion, she said, to either seek work in the field themselves or found a kohanga reo at which their learning could be shared. "This seemed a good idea," she said.
Along with Mirinoa Sanford and after meetings with Wairarapa kaumatua, district kohanga reo and iwi representatives, the "engine was put in motion" that eventually led to the establishment in 1992 of Wahi Reka Kohanga Reo at River Road in Masterton, she said.
The language nest was originally sited with a building shifted from Auckland at the whare of Tumapuhia-a-Rangi kaumatua Tinirau and Kato Akuira, with its name derived from the translated term "Sugar's Drive".
Four years later Mrs Bolstad gained a Certificate in Rakaitanga 3rd Level Maori and in 2000 attained her Te Ataarangi Diploma.
On her return to work at Wahi Reka, she worked toward and gained TKR National Trust Tohu, or accreditation, to qualify for an enhanced level of funding from the Ministry of Education for the kohanga, she said.
The kohanga started out with 11 tamariki on its books and has grown over the years to a roll of 39, she said, with a new room now under construction to cater for an expected "baby boom" in the near future.
In 2003 Mrs Bolstad started work as a part-time Maori language teacher at Te Whare Wananga o Aotearoa and two years later began teaching Te Kura Takiwa for Te Ataarangi.
Ngati Kahungunu Iwi have also contracted her to teach in the homes "of those who want to keep the reo alive and gain confidence in speaking te reo wherever they may venture".
"Wahi Reka Te Kohanga Reo is still my love and prime devotion. It is still what I call 'my baby'.
"And although my parents had died before Wahi Reka was established, if it wasn't for the deep grief I felt at their passing I would not have gone out and sought my Maoritanga and I feel they are still with me at every step of the way, still guiding, still admonishing."