Te Pararē – the student magazine for Te Mana Ākonga: the National Māori Tertiary Students Association – has joined the Aotearoa Student Press Association.
Te Pararē Editor, Taylor-Rose Terekia, says she’s grateful for the extra resources this will provide. “Becoming a member of ASPA is an amazing resource for us. We have so much to learn only really becoming a ‘magazine’ as opposed to a publication earlier this year, we’re completely new to student media,” she told Craccum. “From my first ASPA zui (zoom hui) when Te Pararē was voted a member right then and there I knew this was the place to be, and I’m so excited to learn from our tuakana magazines, but also navigate how we can help one another, especially around anything surrounding Māori and Te Tiriti”.
Te Pararē began in 2019 following discussions at the Te Mana Ākonga Kaiārahi conference. “As I was coming in to my role as 2019 Tumuaki o Te Roopu Māori (Otago) us presidents believed there was the opportunity to build a platform that was for Māori and by Māori, that could weave together Māori tertiary students across the country,” Terekia told Craccum.
Te Pararē represents Māori students across New Zealand’s tertiary institutions – with a focus on Māori topics including Kapa Haka, Hauora, Pūrākau and Identity, and Rangatahi Māori voting. Terekia spoke of the importance of a magazine that maintained Māori editorship and writers: “We recognised how important student magazines were on each campus, but the amount of Māori content differed from magazine to magazine, and year to year as writers and editors changed”.
Terekia specifically noted the contributions of Critic Editor, Sinead Gill, in helping Te Pararē become established and in recruiting Tauira to form their editorial team.
The Aotearoa Student Press Association is comprised of the current tertiary student magazines in New Zealand – including Craccum (Auckland), Debate (AUT), Massive (Massey), Critic (Otago), Salient (Victoria Wellington), Nexus (Waikato), and Canta (Canterbury).