Ngā mihi ki a koutou ngā karanga maha ō te motu, i roto i ngā tini āhuatanga ō te wā. Ngā mihi hoki ki ngā aituā maha, kua haere ki te pō, moe mai rā i roto i ngā ringa mahana o te Atua, moe mai rā, moe mai rā, moe mai rā. Nō reira, e ngā tangata ora, e ngā tangata mate, tēnā koutou katoa. He pitopito kōrero, "ko te reo te tūāhu o te mana Māori". Huri noa tēnā koutou katoa.

Our third issue already! As you read this, Round Five assessments and funding recommendations will have been completed and the team will be in the process of sending out offers of funding to successful applicants and notifications to unsuccessful applicants. In this issue we review the Round and include information that we hope will be helpful in future Rounds.

In the last pānui we informed you that Kelly Harding was moving on. We are now delighted to be able introduce our new Mā Te Reo Project Advisor, Maihi Moa Makiha.

Maihi affiliates to Te Rarawa and Ngā Puhi. He was born and bred in Panguru deep in the heart of the Hokianga. Before coming to Wellington just 8 months ago, Maihi worked for Te Kura Taumata o Panguru. His long-standing history in cherishing and upholding of te reo Māori, is what led him to apply for the Mā Te Reo position. Maihi has also been the Māori youth representative at a number of conferences and organisations. Maihi is excited about his new role and is looking forward to getting to know you all over the coming months. Nau mai, haere mai Maihi.

We are also delighted to let you know that Hana O’Regan of Kai Tahu has rejoined the other community representatives on Te Rōpū Tautoko. While Hana stood down from her membership on Te Rōpū Tautoko when she became a Māori Language Commissioner, the Minister of Māori Affairs has recently decided that he sees no conflict of interest and therefore Hana is back! Welcome back Hana.

The winner of the competition we ran in our last pānui for the first person to successfully complete a project (i.e. all milestones completed on time), is Pine Campbell, Silverdale, Hamilton. Pine did have a couple of extensions to his final milestone, but this was always negotiated with Mā Te Reo, prior to the deadline, so we were always aware of the status of his project. In short, Pine was a pleasure to work with. Congratulations Pine. Your prize of a Mā te Reo jacket and beanie is on its way to you.

We received a total of 275 applications applying for amounts totalling $8,263,000. Of the 275 applications received, 220 were fully completed and therefore eligible to go forward to the next stage of assessment. Of these, 165 applications were approved and 55 declined. As usual we were only able to approve applications up to $1.8 million.

Emailed Applications
We certainly saw a huge reduction in hand-written and posted/faxed applications this Round which was great (11 in total). On the other hand, we received 43 down-loaded and emailed applications during the last week of the Round. By rights, we could have declined to accept those applications because the earlier closing date of 29th April applied in this case. However, because of lack of clarity around this, we gave you the benefit of the doubt and ‘cut and pasted’ your application on-line. Next year, the shorter closing date will definitely apply to emailed applications...

On-line Applications
From the huge number of phone calls we received throughout the application period, there are a number of improvements we need to make to the database for next year. Some of the most common questions were:

"Once I get to the Mā Te Reo Homepage, where do I go to apply?"

The answer is to click on the "logon" button at the top of the screen, however as this tripped so many of you up, we will try and make the link clearer next time.

"Once I've completed the first page of the application on–line and submitted it, how do I go on to complete the rest of it?"

Once you have submitted the first section, you will then see a table with details of your application. To carry on completing the application, you need to click on the project name that will appear.

"I'm trying to put my budget in, but it won’t accept my figures"

Just put your figures in without the $ sign, commas, or full stops.

"I'm trying to put my milestone dates in, but it won’t accept my dates"

Follow the date formula -xx/xxx/xxxx e.g. 01/Jan/2005.

"I've completed all sections of my application, how do I submit it / know that it has been received?"

Once you have completed all sections of the application on-line your application is automatically 'submitted'.

Good on you all for attempting/completing an application. If you didn’t manage to complete on-line this year, don’t be put off, try again next time, get in early in the Round and get one of the team to help you through.

It’s amazing the number of you who leave applying till the very last week of the Round, and even the last few days and hours, when it can be very difficult for us to give you much individual assistance. Next year, we’ll be thinking up an incentive to help you to get your applications in early.

Declined Applicants
We will give you very brief feedback about why your application was declined, but if you request more detail, we will respond and do our best to give you more information. Remember that often, it’s simply a matter of not enough funds to go around, rather than a poor application. However, if there was something about your application, for example, a particular section, that really let you down, we will let you know.

Successful Applicants
Congratulations, but don’t relax yet! You only have two weeks to return your acceptance form, two references and where applicable, revised budgets, to us. In previous rounds this stretched to 4 weeks, but as this slows down our whole contracting process, and because we want a much slicker operation this year, we have reduced the timeframe. Our advice is to get in-touch with your referees as soon as you know that your application has been successful and keep on them. Also, don’t assume that they have sent their references directly to us; it is your responsibility to chase them up. Finally, please make sure the references are signed, in the case of emailed references; a signed copy should also be posted to us. We will not start drafting a funding agreement/contract until your references, acceptance letter and budgets are in. As with overdue milestones, we are going to be strict with this part of the process and if you don’t act quickly to accept the offer of funding it will be withdrawn and offered to someone else.

For sometime now, Te Rōpū Tautoko has been very keen for us to begin informing you about resources that have been developed through Mā Te Reo funded projects. To get this started, one of our providers, Allan Brown, Ngāi Tamanuhiri, has given us permission to profile his Mā Te Reo projects.

Under his company name, Te Kotuku Rerenga Tahi Ltd, Allan has produced and distributed at cost, a series of jigsaw puzzles and bi-lingual pukapuka to all kōhanga reo in the Tai Rawhiti region. As a fireman, Allan is passionate about doing what he can to reduce the high number of preventable injuries to Māori children. His puzzles and books therefore place a strong focus on “whakatūpato” told through the deeds and feats of Te Kotuku. Allan hopes that as a result of accessing his resources, tamariki and their whānau will be able to identify hazards in their home and community, while learning te reo at the same time. Allan is happy for any other iwi, groups, and organisations to access his resources. Although the reo he uses has a strong Tai Rawhiti flavour, the messages are universal. If you are interesting in talking to Allan about obtaining some of his resources, you can contact him by email initially, at tekotuku001@xtra.co.nz

A set of criteria for the assessment of Māori language resources is currently being developed by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori/Mā Te Reo. We will make this available to you in the next issue, and we encourage you to use them when considering any resources for use in your home and community.

We thought as Mā Te Reo applicants/providers you would be interested to know that applications are now open for the second Māori Language Week Awards. The awards are designed to recognise and celebrate the success of efforts to promote the Māori language during Māori Language Week 25- 31st July. So if your Mā Te Reo project or any other project you are involved in is about celebrating Māori Language Week, contact Catherine Sinclair at Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori for more information now! Catherine’s email address is: catherine@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

If you would like to submit an article about your Mā Te Reo project, we’d love to hear from you. Also any photos, suggestions, queries would be welcome and we’ll always do our best to include them in the next pānui...