Huinga Tauira

In 1955, a conference was held in Wellington wherein Mäori students from VUW welcomed Maori students from Auckland Uni for a weekend of discussion, debate, and sports.

This conference would go on to happen every year  or second year right up to now.These days it has a new name: Huinga Tauira. The first formal Mãori group at our university was established a year after in 1956, named Māori Club'. In that time it was set up as a Māori space for Māori, but non-Mäori were also welcome and were a part of the events and discussion.

One of the goals of Maori Club was to convince kaumatua in the regions to send their kids and grandkids to university.

The club also went on to visit secondary schools, convincing students to come to uni. One pretty cool fact I found was that since 1959. the club used to print a magazine, like Salient, every month to show events and stories from clubs and groups around the university. I'm not sure when it stopped, but it hasn't been printed in a while. Although these may seem just like really cool histories, they show that the main theme that has been carried on right from the start of Māori student organisations.