Toku Reo Mauri Ohooho - Oku Tikanga Maori

(Mäori language and custom )

Making a difference to the lives of Mäori mokopuna and tamariki was a big part of Te Mania Shelford's desire to become a speech-language therapist (SLT). That, and an auspicious visit to the careers service where a consultant noted her likes, dislikes and bursary subjects - te reo Mäori, English, biology and geography - and suggested a career in speech-language therapy.

Te Mania says finishing her four-year degree was hard slog. She reckons she'd have given away her studies if it hadn't been for the support of her whänau, the speech-therapy community and a three-year scholarship accessed through Specialist Education Services (SES) - now part of the Ministry of Education.

This year seventeen scholarships worth $15,000 over five years are being offered to Mäori students. From 2004, eleven scholarships will be offered, with eight available to Mäori students. The scholarships are part of an effort to boost the number of Mäori speech-language therapists, and to make special education services more culturally responsive.

Oral language skills are essential for building written language skills. Children experiencing speech and language delays and disorders can struggle to understand and be understood by their teachers and peers. Waiting lists and long delays for speech-language therapy exist in many parts of the country. Though Mäori mokopuna and tamariki make up 17 percent of students referred for speech-language therapy, just six out of the Ministry's 237 therapists are Mäori.

For Te Mania, it wasn't until she'd packed up from her studies in Christchurch and returned home to Whangarei, that she found out about the scholarships.

"It was a big culture-shock moving from Hamilton where I had completed my first year to Christchurch where I needed to do my second, third and fourth years. I mean I was shocked to see so few brown faces, and after six months I was very homesick and had to go home."

Te Mania returned to Whangarei to the support of her family and from local SLTs who had heard she'd quit her studies. They suggested she work alongside a practicing SLT as a teacher aide, while thinking things through.

Within a year, she was once again passionate about becoming an SLT and had successfully applied for a scholarship, which covered her fees, text books and travel home every holiday.

"The scholarship meant I didn't think twice about returning to Christchurch to study."

Having graduated in 2002 Te Mania is now involved in administrating and supporting the new scholarship programme, as well as working fulltime as an SLT. "We're still working through how the scholarship programme will be used to support students, but it's great that we've acknowledged the need."

As for the degree itself, Te Mania says: "I've learned lots, particularly from a Western theoretical side, and now I'm working through how to apply it out in the real world, the Mäori world. For example, I need to be more flexible and more creative when working with students in köhanga and kura kaupapa settings," she says.

This year Te Mania is building her conversational te reo Mäori skills, taking night classes at Te Wänanga o Aotearoa. "The big learning thing for me, looking back over the four years, is - how do I make all this work for our kids, how do I apply it to my everyday? And that's my challenge, that's what I'm continuing to work through."