Mechanic course first to be offered in Te Reo Māori

By Will Trafford, Te Ao Māori News | Mechanic course first to be offered in Te Reo Māori

A new initiative by Ara, formerly the Christchurch Polytechnic will see students studying automotive engineering in Te Reo Māori.

Ara is in the process of converting its workbooks and assessments for its level 3 automotive engineering course to Te Reo Māori after a request from a student educated in kura kaupapa Māori.

“Ara has a policy that it must consider opportunities for learners to be assessed in Māori if a competent translator and assessor can be found,” Ara’s academic quality assurance manager for trades, Julie McIlwraith, said.

She said when the request came through, the polytechnic moved to create the course, a first of its kind in the sector.

One of the challenges was deciding how to handle the terms for car parts thatdon’t have Māori names.

Reimana Tūtengaehe, the Ara tutor responsible for the translations, explains says they had to think about whether to use transliterations, such as ‘kāpareta’ for carburettor or create their own terms and submit them to Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo – the Māori Language Commission, or to use the English terms.