Chaplain humbled by new role

The Rev Wayne Te Kaawa is "humbled'' to be the first Maori chaplain at a university. PHOTO:...
The Rev Wayne Te Kaawa is "humbled'' to be the first Maori chaplain at a university. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
The first Maori chaplain at a New Zealand university has his work cut out for him this year - but says he is honoured to take on the role.

The University of Otago announced last week the Rev Wayne Te Kaawa had been appointed Maori chaplain, to ``assist students and staff with the spiritual aspect of life on campus''.

Mr Te Kaawa, a PhD student at the university and the former head of the Presbyterian Maori Synod, started work earlier this month and said he had been busy ever since.

It was both ``great'' and ``humbling'' to be the first Maori chaplain at a New Zealand university.

``We all hope that it is going to be an example, a model for other tertiary institutions to follow,'' he said.

``I really applaud the university for making a stand and doing something different.''

Part of his job was helping Maori staff and students deal with bereavements, and he also provided ``advice, pastoral care and prayer'', he said.

He was based at the Maori Centre in Leith St, which he said provided ``wonderful support'' to students and to Maori staff.

He assisted university chaplain Greg Hughson with his Friday services and was incorporating Maori elements into the service.

He also hoped to establish a Maori language service on campus, he said.

Mr Te Kaawa will be officially inducted into his role on May 10.

He hails from Kawerau, in the Bay of Plenty, and studied in Otago in the 1990s and early 2000s.

He was the first person in his iwi to study at PhD level and he wanted to inspire younger generations of students, he said.

Next year he was going to teach a paper in Maori theology and religion at the university as a teaching fellow, which he hoped would be marae-based.

Mr Te Kaawa said he was always ``looking for ministry opportunities to engage with people'' and could often be found ``loitering with intent'' on campus.

He let students learning Maori practise conversation with him, and had even been invited to join student sports teams.

In addition to being chaplain at the university he had also been asked to be the minister of his local Dunedin church, he said.

Mr Te Kaawa was former chairman of the board of Turakina Maori Girls' College, which was closed in 2016 and sold to a local iwi earlier this year.

Mr Te Kaawa had ties to the Maori King Movement and was chairman of health provider Te Roopu Tautoko ki te Tonga, in Dunedin.

elena.mcphee@odt.co.nz

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