Behind closing doors: Turakina Maori Girls College

Education reporter Liz Wylie spends an uplifting day at soon-to-be closed Turakina Maori Girls' College.

Take a drive down Hendersons Line in Marton during the next week and you may get to hear some splendid singing coming from Turakina Maori Girls College.

Forget X Factor, The Voice and those Idol shows - if you want to hear some great pipes in action this is the place, and TMGC student Payton Taukamo-Pohio is in fact the runner up of the 2015 Rangitikei's Got Talent contest.

The college has now been advised by Education Minister Hekia Parata that they will close at the end of January after being under ministry appointed statutory management since 2012.

Attending a Sunday lunch at the school, I am greeted by board member and akonga o mua (old girl) PiriHira Tukapua who tells me her great-grandmother, Te Ao Tonga Te Ika Maupoho, was a founding pupil at the school in 1905.

PiriHira's great-grandmother, who was of Maniapoto and Tainui iwi descent, gazes from one of the many photos that line the hallway in the administration building at the college.

"She was a founding pupil when the school opened in Turakina in 1905 and was school dux in 1906.

"Her name on the dux board is Tonga Rangiheuea.

"This was her married name which tells me it was an arranged marriage and she was being trained," says PiriHira.

In Tonga's day, the kaupapa (programme) of the Presbyterian run college was to train young Maori women to become "good women, good wives and good mothers".

The aspirations for Turakina wahine may have changed over the decades but PiriHira said they still aspire to be excellent mothers as well as becoming teachers, lawyers, doctors, business and community leaders.

PiriHira attended Turakina Maori Girls' College (TMGC) from 1993 until 1997 when she became dux of the school 90 years after her great-grandmother was awarded the same honour.

A qualified secondary school teacher and graphic designer, PiriHira, now 35, runs her Levin-based company, Taitoko Design and Print, and was elected to the Horowhenua District Council in 2013.

"I think my pathway would have been very different if I hadn't come to this school," PiriHira says.

"As a teenager in Levin, I was bored and lacking direction and I was at risk of going off the rails if I hadn't come here."

Te Arihi Leaf, TMGC head girl for 2015, has a similar story having made a fairly rough start to her high school days back home in Taupo.

"I am really grateful to my whanau for sending me here because I was unfocused and getting in to trouble.

"This is a place where a teenager who is troubled and disruptive can become a head student," she said.

Te Arihi along with deputy head girl Brooke Rangitawa and fellow student Pikihuia Ponga appeared on an episode of the recently-screened Maori TV series Karanga: The First Voice.

Learning to become kaikaranga (women who have the role of making the ceremonial call to visitors onto a marae) is part of the kaupapa at TMGC.

School principal Terehia Channings explained the four pou (pillars) of TMGC education on the programme as the mana wairua (spiritual values), mana wahine (female strength) mana matauranga (knowledge) and mana Maori.

Te Arihi said she does not have a whanau history of attendance at TMGC although her grandfather, the late Timoti te Heuheu, was the husband of former National MP and current chair of Maori TV, Georgina te Heuheu, who attended TMGC from 1956 until 1959.

Mrs te Heuheu was the first Maori woman to gain a law degree and be admitted to the High Court as barrister and solicitor.

Brooke Rangitawa has strong whanau involvement with TMGC - her grandmother, Merle Rangitawa, was a student at the college in the 1960s and became hostel manager in the 1980s.

Brooke's cousin is Payton who is a year 12 student at the college this year. Her aunt Kellee Rangitawa-Candy was a student in the 1990s and currently sits on the school board of trustees.

The mood in the TMGC lunch room was bright on the day of my visit, and it wasn't just because the All Blacks had won the World Cup in the early hours of that morning.

There were two special visitors at the school - triathlete and former Capital Shakers and Central Pulse player Ngarama Milner-Olsen with recording artist and TV presenter Ria Hall.

They were there to present speeches and workshops to inspire the young Turakina wahine, and as a former student of Turakina herself Ngarama told the girls about how the school shaped her for success.

Guests were treated to the pre-lunch waiata Whakapai nga enai kai - a lovely melody with handclaps and harmonies that sounded like it was sung by hundreds rather than just 50 young voices.

Lunch was a tasty pasta dish with a nice fresh salad and I wonder if this is the type of kai that 2015 dux Ella Lyon was talking about when she said she liked everything about the school except the food.

Ella, who was the only Maori student in New Zealand to win a $50,000 University of Auckland Scholarship for 2016 and one of just 100 successful applicants out of an estimated 1300, must have been getting good nourishment I reckon.

Down the road and around the corner at Marton Junction School are teachers Frances Pere and Jaymie McGregor, two more alumni of TMGC.

Jaymie laughs about the kai and said she remembers complaining about it when she was a student from 1994 until 1998.

"The food was actually pretty good really and I'm sure it's good now too.

"Teenage girls love to complain about what they get to eat."

Jaymie and Frances were part of the contingent that headed to Wellington to perform the women's haka, Ka Panapana, outside Parliament in September.

Although they were invited to have lunch inside Parliament by Maori Party leader Marama Fox, the women had to stand outside in the rain because speaker of the house, David Carter deemed them to be a protest group and therefore not legally allowed to enter the buildings.

"It was really disappointing because we wanted to discuss our plans to re-invigorate Turakina.

"There were kuia there in their 70s and 80s who are former students of the school, and we couldn't even get access for them to go inside and use the toilets," said Frances.

Frances and Jaymie say they have students and daughters of their own who would have liked to attend TMGC in the future, and because of their own Turakina education they could offer good preparation in language and tikanga for students.

To meet some of the Turakina wahine, both current and past students of the college, it is hard to believe they have been living through such difficult times because they are remarkably resolute.

I am reluctant to use the word 'mana' as I am unsure of the literal meaning, although Jaymie assures me that attending Turakina Maori Girls' College does indeed give one mana.

"The education taught us to stand strong as Maori women - it's about how we dress and how we speak and sing.

"It enriched us academically, mentally and culturally which is why we care about it so much."

The Turakina alumni, Nga Wahine o Turakina Nga Hara, have rallied to save their school and formed an incorporated society at the school's 110th anniversary celebration in May this year.

Jaymie said the school roll could have been increased by offering scholarships which could be funded through Nga Wahine o Turakina Nga Hara.

After the trust board's first submission to the Ministry of Education in September, Education Minister Hekia Parata commented on the amount of "goodwill" that existed towards the school but said the benevolence would not be enough to save it.

I wonder whether the Minister realises the depth and breadth of the goodwill that exists within the Turakina network?

The Turakina Board members are working in busy, demanding professions and raising families but they have put in long hours to try and remedy the school's problems.

The goodwill comes not only from the former students and staff but from the Marton community and Rangitikei mayor Andy Watson pledged his support to help remedy the school's problems and is a member of the Board of Trustees.

TMGC has two boards of governance - a Board of Trustees and a Board of Proprietors, and a disconnect between the two boards has been identified as contributing to the school's governance and financial woes.

The school re-structured the two boards to work together and Reverend Wayne Te Kaawa of e Aka Puaho, the Maori Synod of the Presbyterian Church, has been appointed as chairman of the Board of Proprietors.

Rev Te Kaawa has asked for assistance from the wider Presbyterian Church which founded the school, but has offered decreasing financial support since the school became state-integrated in 1980.

One of the two earthquake-prone buildings at the school is the little brick and tile chapel and the other is an old class room block that is no longer used.

PiriHira said the combined boards have worked out that the school has total debts of $250,000 and submitted that they would be able to increase income by leasing a paddock they own and charging rent for staff housing.

Turakina Board of Trustees chairwoman Trish Amoroa said the school is disappointed the Presbyterian Church has not heeded their call for assistance. "For over a century our people have responded with loyalty to the Presbyterian faith and produced leadership worthy enough to earn Turakina its reputation as 'The Jewel in the Presbyterian Crown'.

"It is therefore perplexing that the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand has not heeded our call for assistance," she said.

Since the wider community of former Turakina students have become aware of the school's plight, they have rallied in their thousands on social media pledging support.
I have been extremely impressed by the calibre of the Turakina wahine I have met. They are gracious, strong leaders who all play important roles in our society, and as the old Ella Fitzgerald song says, Something Good Will Come From That.