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Monday 8:30am - 5:30pm Tuesday 8:30am - 5:30pm Wednesday 8:30am - 5:30pm Thursday 8:30am - 5:30pm Friday 8:30am - 5:30pm

Otago University Locals

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Otago University Locals

Supporting Univeristy of Otago Students The Local programme provides first-year students with academic support and social opportunities.

All first-years who are flatting, living at home, or boarding are automatically a part of Locals

What do we actually provide? We’ve got all the bases covered with…

Getting involved:

• Orientation week events
• Locals HQ
• Social and volunteering opportunities
• Pastoral care

Studying Successfully:

• Orientation to Uni Life and Study
• Health Science First Year tutorials
• Early access to Pe

er Assisted Study Sessions
• Workshops: Note-taking, assignment writing, and exam preparation

Email [email protected]

07/05/2025

✨️ Did u ever wanna be a teacher? Judge Judy? or a Luchadore? Well, nows ur chance to dress up and wear what u wanted to be when u were younger!!!

Locals @ UBar, this Friday, 8.30pm ✨️

28/02/2025

Last Friday night 👀……

Hope everyone had a great first week!

24/02/2025

‘Come thunder, come rain, Locals will be here to celebrate every win on Sports day’ - Lani 2025

We hope you all had fun at Sports day as much as we did! It was great seeing you all active and mingling with new friends. Have a great rest of the semester and hope to see some lovely faces around!

P.S go check out the Tiktok Page @/otagolocals!

23/02/2025

Welcome to semester one! As you settle into your lectures and navigate uni, don’t hesitate to visit Locals HQ to ask any more questions! Make sure to read the newsletter Lani sends you each week!

16/02/2025

Don’t let the name fool you – the Locals programme is not just for tauira from Ōtepoti.

16/02/2025

OWeek 2025 has officially started & we're kicking it off with our Welcome tomorrow at 10am! If you need help finding event locations, come up to Locals HQ (1st floor of the Union Building)

The Locals Team can't wait to meet you all!! ✌🏽

05/02/2025

🌟 Join the Locals peer mentoring at the Ōtākau Whakaihu Waka! 🌟

Are you ready to make the most of your university experience? The Locals peer mentoring programme is here to help you navigate your academic journey with ease and confidence!

👥 What is Locals Peer Mentoring Program? A peer mentoring initiative run by the Locals Collegiate Community at the University of Otago. We organise new students into groups of 10, all studying the same or similar subjects, and pair them with an experienced student mentor.

🎓 Why Join?
Personalized Support: Get guidance from someone who’s been in your shoes.
Build Connections: Meet fellow students in your field and form lasting friendships.
Academic Success: Gain tips and strategies to excel in your studies.
Fun Activities: Participate in exciting events and activities designed to enhance your university experience.

📅 How to Join? Sign up today and become part of a supportive community that’s dedicated to helping you succeed. Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity!
🔗 https://forms.office.com/r/PzK3de2bpA

📢 Spread the Word! Tag your friends and let them know about the Locals Guides programme. Together, we can make university life more enjoyable and successful!

03/10/2024

If you need any support due to flooding see the below info:

‼️If you are in immediate danger dial 111 and emergency services will help you

❗️If you are in a difficult situation but not immediate danger then contact Ask Otago 0800 80 80 98 or Campus Watch 0800 479 5000.

👀 Keep an eye on and for up to date information and keep safe, warm, and dry!

19/09/2024

Tēnā koutou i tēnei ahiahi! Ko te rā tuawha mō te wiki o te reo Māori!
Ko puoro pekerangi te kupu o te rā (ngā mihi ki a Lucy mō te kupu).
Ko te kaupapa mō te rā, he hītōri poto o te reo Māori. (I've tried to keep it brief)

Good afternoon everyone! Today is the fourth day of Māori language week.
The word of the day is Disco Music! Thank you Lucy for the word.
The topic for the day is a brief history of te reo Māori.

Decline and revival:
In the last 200 years the history of the Māori language (te reo Māori has been one of ups and downs. At the beginning of the 19th century it was the predominant language spoken in Aotearoa/New Zealand. As more English speakers arrived in New Zealand, the Māori language was increasingly confined to Māori communities. By the mid-20th century there were concerns that the language was dying out.

Major initiatives launched from the 1980s have brought about a revival of te reo. In the early 21st century, about 125,000 people of Māori ethnicity could speak and understand te reo, which was an official language alongside New Zealand Sign Language.

One land, many dialects
The Māori language evolved in Aotearoa over several hundred years. There were regional variations that probably widened because local populations were relatively isolated. These variations had their origins in the fact that the ancestors of modern Māori came by canoe from different villages and islands in eastern Polynesia. Māori had no written language, but the symbolic meanings embodied in carving, knots and weaving were widely understood.

Māori: a common means of communication
For the first half-century or so of European settlement, the Māori language was a common way of communicating. Early settlers were dependent on Māori for many things and had to learn to speak the language if they wished to trade with them.

As more settlers arrived, the need for written communication in Māori grew. Missionaries first attempted to write down the Māori language in 1814. Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University worked with the chief Hongi Hika and his junior relative Waikato to systematise the written language in 1820. Literacy and expanded numeracy were two exciting new

18/09/2024

Tēnā koutou i tēnei ahiahi! Ko te rā tuatoru mō te wiki o te reo Māori!
Ko hohota te kupu o te rā (ngā mihi ki a Oe mō te kupu).
Ahakoa kāore i oti ā mātou mahi, ka hohotatonu mātou.
Ko te kaupapa mō te rā, ko te haki Tino Ranatiratanga, ā, ka whakamarama atu ahau ki a koe. (ahakoa maaku e whakamarama atu ki te reo pakeha)

Good afternoon everyone! Today is the fourth day of Māori language week.
The word of the day is hohota or persevere! Thank you Oe for the word.
The topic for the day is the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, or what is formally recognised as the national Māori flag.

There are a few stories on what the elements of the Tino Rangatiratanga means however the one I'm most commonly familiar with is that the elements of the national Māori flag represent the three realms:
• Te Korekore, potential being (black, top)
• Te Whai Ao, coming into being (red, bottom)
• Te Ao Mārama, the realm of being and light (white, centre).

With the koru being symbolic of a curling fern frond, representing the unfolding of new life, hope for the future and the process of renewal.

It was created in 1989 for a protest group Te Kawariki in 1989. Hiraina Marsden, Jan Dobson and Linda Munn created the design. The final version was unveiled at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands, on Waitangi Day 1990.
In 2009, there was a public hui made to decide what the national Māori flag would be and the Tino Rangatiratanga was chosen.

For me, it is important to acknowledge the Tino Rangatiratanga not only because it's te wiki o te reo Māori but as it is uniquely Māori, for Māori and representative of Māori. A means to distance ourselves from the colonised flag of New Zealand (Ahakoa e mohio ana ahau he maha nga whakaaro mō te tāmitanga, he aha.)

Mā te wā!!

17/09/2024

Tēnā koutou i tēnei ahiahi! Ko te rā tuarua tenei mō te wiki o te reo Māori!
Ko ua te kupu o te rā na te mea kei te marangai anō i te rā nei (ngā mihi ki a Enrique mō te kupu).
Aroha mai, kāore au i tākina nga mahi inanahi mō tāku hē! Ka tākina e au i tēnei rā!
Ko te kaupapa mō tēnei rā ko ā tātou iwi! Hei tauira, ko Waikato me Rarotonga tōku iwi. He aha tō iwi? tuhia tō iwi i raro :relaxed:
(Below I have put some notes about iwi ahakoa maaku e whakamarama atu ki te reo pakeha)
Mā te wā!!

Afternoon everyone! Today is the second day for Māori language week!
The word for the day is ua – rain because it’s raining again today. Thank you Enrique for the word
My apologies guys, I didn't put out the mihi work yesterday so my bad! but I'll put it out today haha

The topic for today is our iwi! An example, I'm from Waikato and Rarotonga (as i said yesterday.) What is your iwi? Write it down below :slightly_smiling_face:
Here are some wee notes about iwi, though i’m writing them in English!
• an iwi is in simple terms, a tribe and each iwi tends to have a hapuu (sub-tribe).
• I believe there are about 100 iwi in Aotearoa but to be honest, I don't actually know them all haha
• In my iwi alone, Waikato, there are about 33 Hapuu or sub-tribes
• It is common for Māori to have more than one iwi
• Many of the iwi names begin with Ngāti or with Ngāi (these translate roughly to "the offspring of".
• Down here in ōtepoti, our local iwi Kāi Tahu substitute the Ng for K's - but that's the topic for tomorrow :wink:
If you have any other questions about any of the topics that have been spoken about, just message me and ill try answer!
Noho ora mai, ā, kia pai tō rā. Stay well and have a good day.
Heoi anō tāku mō nāianei! That's all for now!

16/09/2024

Kia ora koutou!

Ko tenei te wiki o te reo Māori, ā, ko te kaupapa 'Ake ake ake' - A Forever Language.

Ko te kaupapa mō te rā ko ngā whakapapa nā te mea koinei te kaupapa mō te rā, ka tuhia e au tāku whakapapa ki konei.

Ko Taupiri me Karioi ngā maunga
Ko Waikato me Wainui ngā awa
Ko Tainui me Takitumu ngā Waka
Ko Waikato-Tainui me Rarotonga ngā iwi
Ko Tūrangawaewae me Titikaveka ngā marae
Ko Poihākena te pā
Pōtatau Te Wherowhero o te tangata
Waikato taniwha rau
He piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha.
Ko Lei Lani Kereopa Hosking tōku ingoa.

Hiiiiii everyone!
This week is Māori language week and the theme is Ake ake ake - A Forever Language which represents the resilience, adaptability and endurance of our language. It also reflects the commitment kiwis have to embracing and learning te reo Māori long into the future.

The kaupapa/topic for the day is our genealogy and because of this, I will write my mihi here so you can get an idea of what my whakapapa is like ✊🏼

I will be putting some mihi templates around HQ that you can fill in and make into wee books so be on the lookout for those!!

Whakapapa is important and a big part of who we as Māori are. We see everything as having a whakapapa, it allows Māori to make connections to not only the present time but to our ancestors and it allows us to acknowledge the places we come from. Through doing an activities like this, it let's you guys try and make some connections to your ancestors and who you are.

To sum up my whakapapa above my family come from the Waikato region and from Rarotonga (also from Cornwall in Britain lol). My mountain, river, Waka and marae are related to Waikato/Tainui/Raro. Pōtatau is a direct ancestors of mine and he was the first Māori kingi. As well as a reference to a well-known saying about the Waikato river where we use taniwha as a metaphor for chiefs: 'Waikato taniwha rau, he piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha' (Waikato of a hundred taniwha, on every bend a taniwha). Not much of a summary but he aha hoki hahahaha

Address

640 Cumberland Street
Dunedin
9054

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Friday	8:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+6421949653

Website

http://otago.ac.nz/locals

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