Page 95 - NHS Beyond the Classroom

Amy Wharakura 2003

Amy is Waikato’s top student Maori speaker
By Ross Parsons. The North Waikato Tatler, Wednesday June 25th, 2003
Ngaruawahia High School
can be proud of its student’s
command of the Maori language.
Year 12 student Amy
Wharakura has won two sections
of the Waikato Regional Nga
Manu Korero Speech
Competition.
Amy won the Pei Te
Hurinui speech award and the
award for the best female
speaker.
Amys says she was unsure
about entering but is glad now
she made the effort.
“I enjoyed it. I was hesitant
at first but my mum said go for it.
When they read my name out I
was so surprised, it was a great
feeling,” she says.
Amy is only the second
female to have won the senior
Maori speech section.
During a school assembly,
principal David Bradford
complimented Amy. “Well done,
you have earned much mana for
yourself and the school with your
outstanding efforts, we are very
proud,” he said.
Amy’s three-minute
impromptu speech focussed on
the book Whale Rider by witi
Ihimaera and its transition to an
international movie.
She will have to perform a
different speech when she goes to
the national competition in
Palmerston North in September
this year. Ngaruawahia student Amy Wharakura is weighed down with the
Amy says the national
contest will be another challenge trophy and shield she won at the Waikato Region Nga Manu
to overcome and is expecting the Korero Speech Competition.
competition to be tough.
“It will be a step up from
the regionals. It will be difficult
facing the winners from other
areas around New Zealand.”