Last weekend a group of Nayland College students took part in Te Tau Ihu Ngā Manu Kōrero (Top of the South Māori Speech competition). Year 10 student Xanthe Banks won first place in the Junior Māori section and is through to the nationals in September. Congratulations also to Year 11 student Ethan Pemberton, who took home two third placings.

Fourteen year old Xanthe Banks grew up in Wellington, taking part in within-school speech competitions during primary school. However, this was her first time competing since moving to Nelson and also her first time taking part in a regional competition. "It was cool," she said, "really nerve-wracking, but it was a cool experience."

When asked what the topic of her speech was she replied, "Mine was 'Me tā moko te arero e tā moko au te kanohi.' It's like debate between whether you should learn the language before you get a tā moko or if you can get a tā moko without knowing the language."

It's a topic that Xanthe is particularly interested in saying, "I like tā moko, like whenever I look at someone I think, oh I love your tā moko, and since I'm white and I don't look Māori, I always thought when I was little, when I was in Wellington, I was going to get a tā moko so people would know that I'm Māori, to prove to other people, to give myself reassurance, but now I don't really think of it like that. It was a cool topic to choose and I wanted to kind of say something about the Native Schools Act (1867) and that was the one that I thought would bring out the best of the topic."

Xanthe is proud of herself for performing, for just doing it when she almost didn't. "A couple of times I was going to not do it and pull out because I didn't have much time to prepare it and I had a week to learn it so I was getting quite anxious about it."

Getting her kōrero written and memorised in time for the competition was definitely the biggest challenge, but hearing her name announced as the first place winner in the Junior Māori section was an awesome surprise. "I was really shocked, when they said my name, it was cool, exciting...the nerves haven't kicked in yet for nationals, but yeah, it's cool."

Over the next few months Xanthe has the opportunity to tweak her speech (should she desire) and plenty more time to memorise it before she goes head to head with other regional winners at the nationals in Palmerston North in September. Although with the three Te Tau Ihu judges scoring her 100%, 98% and 97% there seems little room for improvement! Well done and we wish you all the best Xanthe!

Congratulations also goes to Year 11 student Ethan Pemberton who won third place in both Senior Impromptu and Senior Māori sections. Well done!