Member Spotlight - Āwhina Green.

Āwhina Green (Ngāti Porou) works at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, University of Canterbury in the teaching programme as a lecturer in te reo Māori and matauranga. She is the new VP Māori for National Women’s Committee at TEU.

Tell us about your role at Canterbury – what you love and what is challenging?

I’m still fairly new to tertiary and it’s very different to where I worked in an immersion primary school. I never had to teach te reo Māori per se, because I worked in the language, not teaching vowels or certain words. For me the biggest challenge has been having to switch to English for my main medium of instruction. But I teach how I would teach in my own classroom. The students come in with bare minimum language, but they’re all very keen. In terms of language teaching, te reo is the most popular to choose at Canterbury which is really cool.

I love many things about my role – I love working with adults who are quite like-minded – we want to grow the future. When my resource teacher of Māori role was disestablished in the primary sector, I felt quite despondent but going into my lecturing role my thinking has changed. I see that I can make some difference and challenge thinking. The big thing is getting people on your waka; you can make change together when you work like that.

Workload is always going to be an issue for people on teaching and admin contracts, which is me. I get loaded up. But I’m finding my feet and I’ve got supportive colleagues.

Why is it important for you to be in a union?

I tend to work better in a collective. I’ve always liked unity aspect of unionism. You’re working with people who bring different strengths to the tēpu, but you’re all there for the greater good.

I come from strong union stock. My grandfather on my mother’s side was the Lyttelton Waterside Worker’s Union President for ten years in the 60s. And my grandparents were born in Blackball. I’ve always been someone who feels strongly about social causes – I hate inequity, I hate injustice – it really bothers me. When you find a group of likeminded people in an organisation like TEU, you know you’re working w people who want the best for everybody.

Outside of the safe whare where I work, the tide is turning a bit for Māori. The thing is though I could sit back and go this is completely screwed up and get upset about it or I can do something about it. Even if I’m just a small piece of the puzzle.