The College is proud to celebrate Lynn Te Aika being made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the recent Queen’s Birthday honours. Among her many accomplishments, Lynne led Aotahi: The School of Māori and Indigenous Studies through a very difficult period following the Canterbury earthquakes.
The official citation reads:
TE AIKA, Ms Lynette Harata (Lynne)
For services to Māori language education
Ms Lynne Harata Te Aika is a tribal advocate, teacher, and researcher for Māori learner success who has been driving the strengthening of te reo and Ngāi Tahu tikanga throughout the South Island.
Ms Te Aika was instrumental in 2000 in developing Ngāi Tahu’s Māori language strategy Kotahi Mano Kāika, Kotahi Mano Wawata, which aims to have 1,000 households speaking te reo Māori by 2025. She developed Hōaka Pounamu for Christchurch Teachers College in 2001, a post-graduate course for teachers using te reo Māori in mainstream, bilingual, and immersion learning at all schooling levels. She has been Chairperson of the Ngāi Tūāhuriri Rūnanga Education Committee since 2001 and developed workshops for teachers in 2014, which have since been completed by more than 4,000 teachers. She developed Kā Poupou Reo o Tahu in 2018, an intensive te reo Māori course for qualified teachers. She was a member of the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology Council from 2011 to 2017 and a Ngāi Tahu Fund Board member from 2012 to 2016. She is a Trustee of Matapopore Charitable Trust involved in Cultural Design and Advice for Greater Christchurch Anchor projects. Ms Te Aika is a Board member and former Chair of Mātauraka Mahaanui, responsible for Māori earthquake recovery for schools and Early Childhood Centres in Greater Christchurch.
Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu Pouārahi, Helen Leahy, said: “The Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency for the South Island is thrilled to see so many whānau champions of Te Waipounamu recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours”:
“Our congratulations … to Lynne Harata Te Aika for her devotion to education, her dedication to te reo, and her constancy in leadership for Ngāi Tahu and beyond, out of her commitment to advancing whānau knowledge. Lynne is a strong advocate for rangatahi as well as an amazing example of a wahine toa in the way in which she contributes, both onstage and behind the scenes.
