Government ministers say they're "stunned" and "saddened" by the state of Māori boarding schools in Aotearoa.
Huakere Girls’ College has 87 students and expects to grow Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
They're putting their money where their mouth is - investing $20 million into the four remaining Māori boarding schools over the motu.
Today, Kelvin Davis and Meka Whaitiri visited Hukarere Girls' College, near Napier, to learn what improvements were needed.
Hukarere is a haikura or high school, with 87 students, with 52 of them living on site as boarders.
It is the only Māori Anglican school for girls in the world.
Whaitiri, the MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, had connections to the school. Although she did not attend, six generations of wāhine in her whānau had.
"To be honest I'm quite saddened by the state of the hostels particularly," she said after taking a tour of the school.
"The coldness in which the young women are expected to sleep, the state of the ablution blocks, [I'm] actually stunned by the state of the kitchen, it was like stepping back into something in the '50s."
She thoughts improvements were desperately needed.
"I can see where the proprietors have tried to patch up and make amends where you can but, overall, the impression you come away [with] having gone through the hostels is - we could do better."
Principal Shona West with Ministers Kelvin Davis and Meka Whaitiri. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
Davis, there in his role as Associate Minister of Education for Māori, found the condition of the akomanga, or classrooms, "sad".
But he said the last thing the government wanted was to close them.
"These Māori boarding schools have played an important role in growing Māori leaders and that's what that pūtea is for."
He said their legacy had to continue.
"They've been around since the mid 1800s, and this kura [Hukarere] is going to celebrate its 150th anniversary in four years time and we want it to be here another 150 years at least after that."
Year 13 student Makere Cunningham was grateful for what the school had, but wanted improvement.
"I think, within the classrooms, there could be a lot of more creative things in there and some of the chairs in our classrooms are a bit pākaru."
The tumuaki, or principal, Shona West, said change was needed.
"I don't know many schools that have got their entire school as prefabs, I don't know of any school in Hawke's Bay that's got that and we have. They're relocated rooms, they're not built on the site, which begs the question, how long do we have to be in this kind of setup?"
The school had to use its gym as its chapel - and West said it was "quite sad".
"In one minute we're praising the lord and using that for chapel service and on the other hand, they're playing basketball in there, badminton, volleyball, doing kapa haka, you know, but that's what we're forced to do."
State of the bathrooms at Hukarere Girls’ College Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
Huakarere is one of the four remaining Māori boarding schools in the country.
Two more are also in Te-Matau-a-Māui (Hawke's Bay) - they are St Joseph's Māori Girls College in Napier and Te Aute College in Pukehou, between Hastings and Waipawa.
The other is Hato Pāora, in Feilding in the Manawatū.
Its tumuaki Dr Nathan Matthews said his school's boarding areas needed the cash.
"For us I think our greatest area of need is in our hostel, our dormitories, the living area," he said.
"It takes a lot of money to maintain the dormitories so they would be our number one priority in terms of where we would look to spend the money."
The schools did not yet know what share of the $20m they would get.
Davis said government officials would work with the schools and their boards to work out how much they would receive.
He said the money for the funding came from Te Puni Kōkiri, not the Ministry of Education, as it was funding specifically for growing Māori leaders.