Eli Puna is a year 10 student at St Peter’s College. After winning the Southland and Otago Ngā Manu Korero speech competition, he was invited to compete in the Ngā Manu Korero Nationals at Spark Arena in Auckland, a large speech event livestreamed and filmed for television channel Whakaata Māori.
Eli performed his speech "My first 100 days as prime minister" and said the speech was what he would like to do if elected to the position.
"My main focus was on the people of New Zealand, people not being discriminated against, being able to express their culture without backlash," he said.
He was the first Gore student to compete at the event, and said although he placed outside of the top five, he is looking to return and get a win.
"Even though I’m not sure where I placed, it was an amazing experience. Even being there, making it was massive. This year I got a feel for it. So for the next three years, it’ll be about coming back and trying to get that placing again."
Eli has competed in speech competitions since he was in year 5, and said he was just expressing his natural ability as well as he can.
"It’s just a talent that I have, and I just want to express it because I feel like this can give me a future, just trying my hardest to win these competitions because I just don’t waste my talent," he said.
Eli said it was practise, practise, practise at the event, with and he spent many hours a day in preparation, which helped with the nerves.
"The last few days, I wouldn’t do anything else until I practised it enough to get it spot on. I had to make sure my voice was right, so I went for a run before the event. I got nervous, but to clear that I would just practise and practise until I got excited, knowing that I was capable," he said.
St Peter’s College teacher Victoria Kelly joined Eli, as well as others in the school’s Te Ao Haka group who sat with Eli on stage and performed a waiata and a haka after his speech. She said the event was massive, but St Peter’s and Gore stacked up well compared to some of the larger groups.
"It was a pretty eye-opening experience to see some of the North Island schools, they’re huge, but ours wasn’t so big, but they still did an outstanding job," she said.
Mrs Kelly said the event shone a light on young people excelling at their chosen field.
"We’re immensely proud that we had a student represent Southland and Otago. It just shows the the drive and the determination that not only Eli has, but that a lot of our students have, to reach their high standards that they set for themselves," she said.
