Kia Ora whānau! Ko Terina Raureti tōku ingoa, ko Ngāti Raukawa tōku iwi, nō Otaki ahau.
I started my postgrad journey last year when I discovered my passion in Māori Physical Education and Health and working within our Māori communities. To be honest, when I came to Otago as a PE fresher, I did not think for one second that I would make it through to doing a masters. However, that ‘C’s get degrees’ attitude goes away pretty quickly once you find something you love.
Prior to taking up the challenge, I was told that it was hard. And yes, yes it was hard, I even cried sometimes. Assignment after assignment, client after client, just to turn around and realise that it was now June and I still hadn’t done ethics. After coming to the conclusion that it was time to quit, I was gifted with wise words from my supervisor (supervisor of the year), who said, “It’s all part of the journey”.
This resulted in a trip to find some hauora (the gym and my Te Reo class), which is where I decided it was time to start walking the talk. Why not combine my three favourite things and have some fun? Māori PE and Health, the gym and Te Reo Māori all mashed together to create Whānau Fit. Obviously, being my fifth year at uni, I only had three mates, but they were all there ready to go on that first week (shout outs, you know who you are). But, perks, this gave me a week to sort out what I was doing. From there we started advertising and numbers started to grow.
The kaupapa of Whānau Fit is to get people active as a collective under the Māori Worldview, using as much Te Reo as we can. It opens up a space for people of all ages, to revitalise our language and culture and have fun being active amongst friends. All in all, it’s basically the space that got me through my final semester of assignments, exams and submitting my dissertation.
Nō reira whānau, nau mai haere mai. Everyone is welcome! When times get tough, there’s a family here to help you get through, every Thursday at 12 o’clock. See you there!
Ngā mihi,
Terina Raureti
School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise
For more information contact terinaraureti@gmail.com