Abstract:
He moana pukepuke e kengia e te waka - a choppy sea can be navigated Despite a history of ongoing government directives and educational programmes, the belief that tertiary institutions are now more suited to meet the learning needs of all students is still a shaky waka (canoe) to paddle. The reality is that many indigenous students still enter tertiary study with well-founded trepidation and many become dispirited or lost along the way. This is certainly the experience for many Māori and Tāngata Pasifika (people of Pacific descent) in tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2004 the Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland created the Tuākana Arts Programme to provide mentoring and learning support for all first year Māori and Pasifika students. This paper outlines the Tuākana programme and considers its strategies and cultural ‘fit’ within the other first year support structures in the faculty.
