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Kia ora koutou, especially our tauira rata. We are Te Oranga ki Otakou, the Maori Medical Students’ Association. As you may have read over the last few weeks, the different Maori roopu have been introducing themselves to you, and now it’s our turn.

Our Komiti for 2010
Kirsten Taplin – Tumuaki / President
Te Whakatohea. Third-year, from Auckland.
Tyler Rudolph – Vice-Tumuaki
Ngatiwai, Ngaiterangi, Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa. Third-year, from Whangarei.
Alison Nankivell – Kaituhi / Secretary. 
Ngapuhi. Third-year, from Nelson.
Matt Stretton – Kitiaki Putea / Treasurer
Waikato, Tainui. Third-year, from Waiheke Island.
Cole Rudolph – Clinical Years Representative
Ngatiwai, Ngaiterangi, Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa. Fifth-year, from Whangarei.
 
Te Oranga ki Otakou is the Otago branch of Te Oranga, which collectively represents all Maori medical students in New Zealand. We also look after our clinical-year students, who move away to Christchurch and Wellington in their final years (years four to six).
Te Oranga ki Otakou was started in 1999 and has been going strong ever since, building on past tauira’s mahi. We now have over 80 Maori medical students at Otago! Te Oranga’s main purpose is provide support for our young doctors from their first day of medical school to graduation and beyond.
So far this year we have had numerous hui, but the most significant was our annual Freshers’ Hui. We run the Freshers’ Hui every year at Otakou Marae, on the tip of the Otago Peninsular. We hold this hui to bring together new and existing Maori medical students to facilitate whakawhanaungatanga and build a sense of whanau within our tauira rata at the Medical School.
We have a lot of exciting initiatives and events in the pipeline for the rest of the year, including Te Ora’s (NZ Maori Doctors’ Association) annual Hui a Tau, our Reo Waananga Hui, for which this year we are travelling to Rotorua to learn Te Reo and meet up with our Auckland counterparts. We are in the process of building a textbook library and organising Te Reo tutorials for all medical students to try and promote Hauora Maori throughout the med school.
So if you’re involved, keep it up, and if not, come and get amongst it. We have a big year coming up and it’d be a shame to miss out.
Add us on Facebook (Te Oranga) to keep up to date with events and happenings – and when you get your next awesome email from Tui don’t just delete it, come along, get some kai, and meet the crew.