By Alina Suchanski

Reading time: 11 minutes

A year ago, Toni Hoeta, a young wāhine from King Country, New Zealand, landed her dream job at Otago Museum leading the Solar Tsunami Programme’s outreach to Māori throughout Aotearoa. Alina Suchanski talks to Toni about her life and aspirations.

A daughter of Vivienne and Michael Hoeta, Toni (24) was born and grew up in Raetihi, in what is now the Manawatū-Whanganui region in New Zealand’s North Island. The town lies at the foot of Mt Ruapehu, in a valley between the Tongariro and Whanganui National Parks, 11 kilometres west of Ohakune’s ski fields, with the Makotuku River winding its way at the settlement’s edge.

Once the largest town in the King Country, with 4,500 residents in 1900, Raetihi was thriving during the logging boom. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the area boasted an incredible 150 sawmills, where many locals were employed milling rimu, tōtara, kahikatea, mātai, and beech trees. When the supply of native timber ran out, the town’s population declined. Today, Raetihi has just over 1,000 inhabitants, 66.8% of whom identify as Māori (2018 census).

Hoeta describes her hometown as “very country” and the community as “very close-knit”. As kids, she and her siblings spent a lot of time by the Makotuku River. Her whakapapa combines Ngāti Rangi, Atihaunui-a-pāpārangi, Ngāti Porou and Te Atiawa descent and she has a rather large extended family. “My mum is one of 13 and her mum was one of 21 children. Over three quarters of Raetihi is related to me,” Hoeta laughs.

Although she only has two siblings – an older brother Samuel, and a sister Justine – she grew up with a much larger whanau. “My mum and her older sister shared me, so I have an extra four brothers and a sister as well, who are my auntie’s children. Well, she’s my auntie, but I call her Mum, because I’d spent two years at home, then two years with her, and then a year at home, then another year with her. This was pretty normal, it happened to a lot of my friends as well. It’s called whāngai,” Hoeta explains.

According to Te Aka Māori Dictionary, the word whāngai means to feed, nourish, bring up, foster, adopt, raise, nurture, rear. Tamaiti whāngai is a foster or adopted child. Often a couple’s first child is brought up by grandparents or adopted by one of the brothers or sisters of a parent, but almost always the foster child is a close blood relation. Whāngai is a customary practice amongst the Māori which continues today (Te Aka, n.d.). “It’s an unspoken agreement between family members, meaning that the love you have for each other should be enough for you to trust that person to look after something that you created and to share that creation. So my mum and her sister did that, and I love it,” exclaims Hoeta.

Hoeta grew up with te reo Māori. Her mother, a fluent te reo speaker, teaches at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Rangi, a full immersion Māori school. Hoeta’s brother went to this school and is also fluent.

Young Toni loved science, but because it was difficult to translate science terminology into te reo Māori the subject wasn’t taught at her mum’s school. So, she and her sister were sent to a mainstream school in Ohakune. “I was obsessed with science. My parents were very supportive. They always bought me science books when I was growing up,” she says.

Some of the challenges that small rural schools face is the availability of teachers. When Toni reached high school age, her parents tried to send her away to study, because the high school in Ohakune did not have a science teacher. “We had a biology teacher, but not any physics or chemistry teachers. But I didn’t want to be away from my family, so they put me in a video conferencing school, and I did physics and chemistry online. Dad used to teach me physics and Mum was trying to teach me chemistry. They pushed and pushed, and they got me to uni.”

Toni went to Otago University to study medicine. “My mum came down and stayed with me for a week when I came to university. She took me everywhere, made sure I knew where I was going. She was surprised how many one-way systems there were in Dunedin and was worried about me crossing the road, because there are so many cars here,” she laughs.

Hoeta found the transition from Ohakune to Dunedin to be a big challenge. “It was a massive adjustment. Being away from Mum and Dad and my family was really hard, with me in Dunedin, South Island, and them all in the central North Island or Taranaki. It was a big learning curve. Coming from a background with not a lot of money didn’t help. Going home to see Mum and Dad was a once-a-year event.”

She completed her undergraduate degree, a postgraduate diploma and a Master of Science, all majoring in anatomy with neuroscience elements. But then her love of science and Māori culture led to a turn in her career path. When Otago Museum advertised the position of Science Engagement Co-ordinator Māori, Hoeta jumped at the opportunity. “I couldn’t believe it – science, Māori, engaging the public and getting tamariki excited about science – that’s my dream job!”

Getting the job was a huge deal for her and her whānau. “They were all very excited and proud. Being from such a small town where everyone knows everyone, they all supported me 100 percent.”

At Otago Museum, Hoeta works with the Science Engagement team, whose responsibility is to take science to the public. She coordinates a few projects, but her main one is the University of Otago Solar Tsunamis Programme. As the Science Engagement Co-ordinator Māori for the programme, Hoeta’s role is about educating the public, especially iwi, while grounding it in mātauranga (wisdom) Māori.

Hoeta is also involved in The Science of Medicines project, run out of Otago University by Dr Karyn MacLennan. “She is Ngai Tahu, and she teaches about the traditional Māori medicines. She goes out to the community and teaches them about their own rongoa (medicines) that they would’ve learned from their elders, and the science behind their Rongoa – what it has in it, what it’s composed of. We just received funding for round two of The Science of Medicines to go to schools and teach children about viruses. I’m really excited to be on this project. We have other smaller projects where we go and teach the kids about the environment and climate change. I’ve always loved kids and wanted to work with them. When I was doing my neuroscience degree, I did volunteering for the BHRC (Brain Health Research Centre) at Otago University and went to schools and taught the youngsters about the brain,” Hoeta says.

She doesn’t consider herself a fluent speaker of Māori but says she’s learning. “The grammar gets me all the time. I’m conversational, but the goal is to be fluent soon, so I can go to full immersion schools and be able to teach science to all of the kids. At the moment when we go to full immersion schools, I speak Māori half the time.”

Outside of her fascination with science, Toni is into sustainable fashion, snowboarding, skating, and playing computer games. “My partner is into the environment, so we do a lot of outdoorsy things. I grew up under the mountain near Ohakune, so we go snowboarding a lot. I have many great friends, so I hang out with them a lot too.”

Although Hoeta completed a master’s degree in anatomy and neuroscience, her long-term plan is to return to medicine. “Eventually I’d like to go back to school and study medicine. Then I can return home, be a town doctor and look after my parents,” she declares.

Her advice for young people choosing their goals is to work hard and be kind, ask questions, show interest, and offer help. “A good work ethic can get you a long way. My parents taught me that. I work hard, keep my head down, so that I can do what I put my mind to. But also, just kindness goes a long way. Offering to help here or volunteer there, sometimes even just walking down the street and lending a helping hand to someone in need. I’ve met so many amazing people like that. That’s created many opportunities,” she says.

 

Sources: 1. Raetihi, Wikipedia 2. Te Aka Māori Dictionary

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