Healthy lesson for youngsters
After nine years in the insulation industry, Taimus Ritai made the bold move to change his career path and is now using his accounting degree to help his iwi.
‘‘While I was working, I ended up looking around at all the old fullas that were working with me and thinking to myself, that’s not what I want to be.
‘‘As Māori, we think we only belong in labour and high-risk jobs, so being able to get out of that mindset has been pretty cool.’’
Ritai, who has spent most of his life in Waitara, was encouraged to start studying by his dad, who did a double major in marketing and management.
‘‘Being the Māori that I am, I thought I was too dumb to do it, but I ended up taking my old man’s advice and started studying.’’
Four weeks after handing in his resignation, Ritai went head-first into study.
The 30-year-old started with a leadership diploma and found his love for accounting through the papers he was taking. ‘‘I ended up carrying on into a degree. Getting back into learning has been the best part.’’
He is now one of three winners of the BDO Sir Henare Ngata scholarship.
He will begin his internship with BDO this year and receive $7500 for study-related costs.
The scholarship also provided registration for Ngā Kaitatau Māori o Aotearoa hui, and mentorship with BDO for his final year of study.
Ritai said although he was loving his accounting studies, his passion was to be able to bring the knowledge he had learnt back to his iwi and hapū. ‘‘It will be great when we can get to the stage where Māori organisations can look to our own people rather than outsourcing work.’’
Ritai said his motivation was to encourage Māori communities, who are significantly under-represented in accounting jobs, to have a go at
the Māori that I am, I thought I was too dumb to do it, but I ended up taking my old man’s advice and started studying.’’ Taimus Ritai
something new.
‘‘To any other Māori who are thinking about taking on this path of accounting – do it! I thought getting a degree was good enough but now that I’m where I am today, I want to carry on. Just take it one step at a time.’’
Children at three Taranaki primary schools got a lesson in health care on International Nurses’ Day.
Nurses from the Taranaki District Health Board visited schools in New Plymouth, north Taranaki, and Hāwera on Thursday last week to talk about their work.
At Urenui Primary School, Mandy Mahony, Kristal Dufty, Rebecca Gibson and Jonele Woodhead, the Taranaki DHB’s medical inpatients nurse manager, answered questions from a class of sixand seven-year olds, displayed medical tools and applied some fake plaster casts.
Woodhead said the visit reminded them about why they got into nursing.
‘‘Every day we are working so hard and sometimes we lose sight of why we’re here and why we do this. Getting out and talking to kids reminds you that we do it because we love what we do.’’
Down south, Shannon Drought, Tracy Gyde and Jess Wadsworth visited Hāwera St Joseph’s.
Meanwhile, nurses Jan Prideaux, Hunter Osbourne, Emma Holmes, and Katelin Bromell visited Central Primary School in New Plymouth, with Claudia Matthews, Taranaki DHB’s service lead for medical and acute services, bringing along personal protective equipment for the youngsters to try on.
However, the gear soon became uncomfortable, Matthews said.
‘‘The kids were saying, ‘These are so hot and yucky. Get it off me.’ It really highlighted to them what our staff are dealing with day to day.’’