By Lola Walker
Studying Indigenous languages on both sides of the Pacific Ocean has inspired a local student currently training to become a teacher.
Indigenous student Mahatta Price, who is from the K’ómoks First Nation, recently spent two months in New Zealand studying at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and the University of Waikato, learning the culture and language from locals.
Why New Zealand?
Price’s cross-Pacific journey began in May 2024, when she went on a 15-day “study abroad” program through North Island College (NIC). The Indigenous field school, Journeying Together Te Ao HuriHuri, brought Price and nine other NIC students to New Zealand to experience a Māori culture and their way of life.
Price was fascinated by what she learned, and was inspired to continue learning about how the Māori people are revitalizing their traditional language. She was also interested to learn how they are incorporating Indigenous knowledge into their post-secondary school system.
When Price returned to New Zealand, she was supported by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship (QES) Program and was able to stay for two months this time, which she spent learning and immersing herself in Māori language and culture.
“I got to partake in different classes for the first month without actually being enrolled in any of them.” Price explains. “I would go and observe the class and take notes and I could ask questions.”
She says thanks to this arrangement, she was able to experience different aspects of the education system.
The Future of Indigenous Language
Price is now at the University of Victoria, where she is hoping to complete a Post Degree Teaching Certificate and return to K’ómoks First Nation to teach Indigenous studies using some of the strategies she learned in New Zealand.
She highlights one experience she had in her first month of studying abroad.
“There was this one really interesting [class] about environmental stewardship, and learning about the local territory from an Indigenous point of view,” she says.
She says the experience enhanced her interest in the connection between language and the environments where it develops and is spoken. She says the education she experienced in New Zealand is similar to what she hopes to one day teach to her own students.
Price plans on sharing her experiences and what she learned from Māori culture in a presentation with North Island College’s Indigenous Education Council later this year.
Reflecting on the Exchange
She says NIC’s exchange process was very well organized and she felt that her safety was a priority the entire time. She hopes that other NIC students will also take advantage of these programs as valuable learning opportunities.
Price says her experiences and the people she met were overwhelmingly positive, and that she would love to return to New Zealand one day. Her connection with her host family left a positive impact, and she says living with a Māori family who spoke the indigenous language so authentically was beautiful to experience.
“It felt like going to meet another family because so many of their value systems are the same, so you get to learn so much about a new culture, but you still feel so much at home,” she says.
The experience has also helped Price be more appreciative of what makes her home culture and family unique. She believes that it has also provided her with more tools that she can apply when learning language.
“There are so many things engrained into my lifestyle at home that I didn’t realize were cultural or unique to my community,” she says.
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