Winners of the Battle of Gate Pa 150th Commemoration Speech and Essay competitions will receive their awards tonight.

The presentations are an opportunity to see why Victoria Cross recipient Willie Apiata is calling a 16-year-old's speech 'extraordinary”.

Battle of Gate Pa 150th Commemoration Speech winner Maraea Ranui giving Gate Pa 150th Commemoration project director Buddy Mikaere a hongi.

Tauranga Girls' College Year 12 student Maraea Ranui swapped stories with Willie when sitting beside him at last week's Gate Pa Commemoration Dinner.

She gained the opportunity after winning the Battle of Gate Pa 150th Commemoration Speech competition. Now she'll deliver her speech when collecting a $750 prize at Thursday's awards night.

Willie says he shared with Maraea how nervous he felt about public speaking, later saying the student, who won the speech competition, is 'extraordinary”.

Fellow Tauranga Girls' College students have also won top prizes in the Gate Pa Essay competition's junior and senior sections, with winners receiving their awards this Thursday too.

Junior section winner is Kalais Going, with fellow TGC student Kayla Dawson taking second prize.

The senior section winner is Tayla Turner-Paki, with Mount Maunganui College student Paula Smith taking second prize.

Tauranga Girls' College student Danielle Waiari's essay was highly commended by the judges.

Tauranga City Library senior librarian and local historian Stephanie Smith says 'as judges, we wanted also to commend Danielle's thoughtful piece about making the Maori-Pakeha relationship work”.

Stephanie, who chaired the judging panel, says the essay competition's junior entries were asked to write about ‘What the Battle of Gate Pa means to me'.

'Because the topic was such a personal one, we looked for a heart-felt response.”

The winning junior entry, from Kalais Going, drew clear moral lessons about courage and self-confidence from the story of Gate Pa.

'The runner up entry from Kayla Dawson combined enthusiasm and healthy scepticism, while showing a real interest in the history of her adopted country New Zealand, along with an understanding that historic sources are not always easy to interpret.”

In the senior entries, the judges say they looked for evidence of some original thought and research, and a coherent structure.

'The winning entry from Tayla Turner-Paki used a whakatauki [proverb] and mihi [prayer] –and, very interestingly, it began with a Pukehinahina haka.

'We thought it would make a good speech, full of dignity and compassion,” says Stephanie.

'Tayla had ideas not only about why the battle of Gate Pa should be commemorated, but also about how to do it, and she used her sources well.”

Senior second prize-winner Paula Smith made particularly good points about the land in her essay, writing: 'We are the land, and the land is us”.

Eves Realty CEO Ross Stanway, whose company is a competition sponsor, says the high standards set by the competitors is a credit to them and reflected the high interest in the commemoration taken by local schools.

Ross says reading the winning entries had given him new insights into the events of April 29, 1864, and he believed 'the winning entrants surely had a future in writing as a career”.

Prizes for both the Battle of Gate Pa speech and essay competitions will be awarded at a function, hosted by Eves and the ANZ bank, this Thursday, May 8, at Elizabeth Street Cafe and Larder beginning at 5.30pm. Entry is free.

Gate Pa 150th Commemoration project director Buddy Mikaere says the competition is a fitting way to end the battle commemoration events.

'Our children are our future, and these young people have written essays and speeches about respect, remembrance and reconciliation.

'They have captured the essence of what these events are all about for our community –and for that we thank them.”