Muka Tangata wants ākonga (learners) to flourish in the food and fibre sector, and for employers and industry to get workers with the skills they need. 

Muka Tangata is responsible for quality assurance activities with providers who develop and deliver their own programmes. As part of our new approach to quality assurance, our kaimahi have been hosting professional development workshops with providers, including schools, that deliver food and fibre programmes. We’re also adjusting our moderation reports to reflect te ao Māori values and working on our commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi through focusing specifically on the achievement of Māori ākonga. 

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Our Muka Tangata Poutiaki Te Ara Kōunga Māori (Quality and Assurance Māori Advisor), Kīngi Rākete-Tane, has been hosting the workshops on ‘Incorporating mātauranga Māori into ways of working’ which covers  

• Contextualising mātauranga Māori and its connection to our industries  
• How Muka Tangata are embarking on a journey to incorporate te ao Māori (the Māori worldview) 
• Building awareness of common values (uara) and principles (mātāpono) that supports the success of all ākonga, especially ākonga Māori (Māori learners) 
• Providing real-life examples of mātauranga Māori in practice  

We have had a huge amount of interest in this kaupapa (subject) this year from both schools and providers and we recognise the need to continually build on this. We have also enjoyed seeing our providers upskill and explore the subject in more depth – haramai tētahi āhua.  

Kīngi, was also a speaker at the recent Te Reo Ki Tua – National Language Revitalisation Symposium, sharing his knowledge and experience of the revitalisation of te reo Māori. Te Reo Ki Tua was hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu (Hawke’s Bay) over two days in August.   

The theme of this year’s symposium is: “Te waewae tūtuki!”, meaning the demonstration of resilience, especially given the destruction caused by Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year. Te Reo Ki Tua works to raise awareness around the current state of reo Māori language, and to inspire language champions to inspire others to learn, use and save the language. Kīngi talked about the connection between te reo and Māori identity, encouraging Tangata Tiriti – te reo as a means to true bi-culturalism, including how Muka Tangata keep te Tiriti at the centre of our mahi, and the effects of academia on iwi dialects.