After years of attending Māori pre-graduation ceremonies to support the graduands, Kiringāua Cassidy is now "on the other side".
When Kiringāua Cassidy (Kāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Mutunga, Te Ati Awa) takes to the stage at the Māori pre-graduation ceremony on Tuesday, it will be somewhat of a role reversal.
The 21-year-old graduates on Wednesday 11 December with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Indigenous Studies and with a minor in History.
As a child, Kiringāua would attend Māori pre-graduation ceremonies and over the years would observe graduands taking their steps into the future while his parents, Komene Cassidy and Paulette Tamati-Elliffe, supported them.
“Now I’m on the other side of that where I’m the one that’s all grown up now. I’m the one that has to go eventually and find a real job,” he laughs.
“I’m looking forward to experiencing this side of it.”
Kiringāua’s story towards tertiary education is a unique one. Having completed his first two years at King’s High School, he left at 14 years old to focus on securing university entrance via correspondence school. It meant more time at home and, crucially, more time for him to hone skills that would help him in the future.
“I pretty much spent from 2019 onwards just gaining experience, doing bits of schoolwork here and there, but where I really learned anything was through kaupapa – kura reo, wānanga, anything that we’d been doing in those years.
The Covid-19 pandemic then saw others transition to home-based learning, which allowed Kiringāua to feel like he was ready for university life.
“I knew I wanted to come to the University for about six years, and although I wasn’t studying here for those first three years, it guided me towards where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do here.”
There will be a considerable presence on Tuesday in support of Kiringāua. Whilst grateful for all the support he has received, there is one particular person he will be remembering as he takes in a moment he has seen and been involved in for the past 10 years. His late grandfather, Iehu ‘Buddah’ Cassidy.
“He came down here from Awanui to be a linesman, raised his children down here, and his mokopuna were raised down here – and his mokopuna can speak Māori. There was a bond that we created with him that we didn’t really create with our other grandparents because through us speaking te reo Māori to him, we were reviving the reo within him,” Kiringāua says.
“He only ever spoke Māori to us. From a generation that was beaten for speaking te reo, that’s rare. That generation has a lot of trauma that makes it difficult for them to be able to push through and continue speaking Māori and their ways of speaking Māori.”
The only thing that held Kiringāua’s drive and determination longer than his quest for a University education was his commitment to te ao Māori. Having performed his first whaikōrero (speech) at a young age, he has practically grown up supporting both his iwi and the University to advocate for Māori interests.
“I know that I don’t need a Bachelor’s degree in te ao Māori for te ao Māori to listen to me, but I do need a Bachelor’s degree in te ao Māori for te ao Pākehā to listen to me talk about te ao Māori. It’s a stepping stone towards a better dialogue, creating a better bicultural country.
“This goes right back to the early days of the first Māori to come through these systems – Te Rangihīroa, Tā Apirana Ngata, all of them. This is a stepping stone towards using Pakeha tools and colonial systems to be able to tear down colonial systems and be able to actually reassert real active rangatiratanga for te ao Māori.
“That’s what I’ve been about since day dot, even since before thinking about University – is justice for te ao Māori.”
Something that will warm the hearts of the many in attendance in person, online and in spirit, come Tuesday’s Māori pre-graduation ceremony.