Students left stranded after UC disbands support service umbrella

2023 Te Akatoki President, Anna Pohatu (centre) , said that many students previously a part of Te Waka Pākākano are hugely hurt from the move to disestablish the support service.

Students are feeling lost and confused on where to go, after the University of Canterbury disbanded support service umbrella, Te Waka Pākākano.

The decision, which came after a proposal in November last year, has split up equity groups including disability services and rainbow support as well as Pasifika and Māori.

Anna Pohatu, current Tumuaki of Te Akatoki, the UC Māori student association, explained how important Te Waka Pākākano was to students, especially those who belonged to more than one minority group.

“Say if a Māori or Pasifika student was also disabled, or identified within the rainbow community, they had a short-cut on where they could go for advice,” she said.

“Instead of one department being strong and the other ones being weak, they all carried each other. Like a basket weaving together to hold all the students in a little kete.”

Without that shared kete or space, students are confused on where they can go.

UCSA Pasifika student advisor Okirano Tilaia, expressed that Pasifika students are feeling the same confusion. “A lot of Pacific students are Māori as well, so now that there is a bit of disestablishment, our Pacific students are having to choose which one they want to do.”

“It makes it very difficult especially for their identity, which is already being challenged at the University of Canterbury, because there’s not many of us.”

Māori and Pacific student enrolments (2019-2022) and their percentage of all domestic student enrolments. Source: UC 2022 Annual report.

Both Māori and Pasifika enrolments at the university have increase in the past two years according to the UC 2022 annual report.

The report also showed $897,000 worth of funding going into the Te Waka Pākākano programme in 2022 with a significant portion coming from the TEC (Tertiary Education Commission). In the description, UC said the programme, “helps the university to support a learning environment which recognises and promotes Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique bicultural society.”

With students now facing choices of what equity group they belong to, many are becoming lost and support is becoming harder to access.

Former Te Akatoki president, now the president of the National Māori Student Association Rosa Hibbert-Schooner, said that Te Waka Pākākano meant students didn’t have to worry about cultural responsiveness when getting help.

“There were so many details that Te Waka Pākākano were able to think about and effectively fix rather than going to one person, then another where it feels very like pillar to post.”

“The cohorts that they were having was so beautiful… the impact that that can make is incredible.”

President of the UCSA, Pierce Crowley said that Te Waka Pākākano was successful in what they did while operating. “Student feedback was that they were quite a safe space for the student; students felt comfortable accessing their services.”

Crowley also said that the university gave assurances to the UCSA and Te Akatoki that students would not be impacted by any changes.

With no formal announcement being made, Pohatu is determined to “keep the fire going.”

“We are not happy with how it has gone; we are not happy that we haven’t been heard, our mamae and hurt from it all is huge.”

UC did not make a comment.