As we ascended upon the waharoa of Papakura Marae, a certain calmness and a sense of Tūrangawaewae embraced us and then captured us in a cloak of Tīkanga, Te Ao Māori and Matauranga. An historic event which transpired from a thought of ‘Kotahitanga‘, ‘Manaakitanga‘, and ‘Whakawhanaungatanga‘. As a Kāhui Āko we descended upon our local marae as a collective of schools.
One of my most enjoyable places to be has and will always be on a marae. In amongst the concrete jungle we grew up, there are many pleasures, but going home to a marae surrounded by our whenua, our awa and our tupuna always will send my heart fluttering. Having recently been home to Ruatoki in the valley, made me think of what I was missing out on, especially seeing as for the first time in a long time, I felt like I belonged. So here in Taamaki Makaurau, I have always sought the same feeling. I certainly found that at Ihumaatao (Makaurau marae) in among the beauty and the aroha of Te Wai-o-Hua, a place I felt was home when for the 25 years I taught in Mangere and gave service to our community.
Inaianei, i te tū mātou kei te waharoa o te marae o Papakura, i te karanga te wahine ra, i te eke mātou i runga i te marae ātea, ā, i te kuhuna e mātou kei rō whare, me noho, me whakarongo, me waiata, ā, i te poho kererū e au ki te hā kei rō whare, ā mauri tū, mauri ora.
I could not have been more proud of our little school and our little team from the Kāhui Āko being able to lead such an event which mattered to us. Sharing this rich resource and encountering pride when sharing our little pockets of knowledge made it all worth while. How through the turmoil of what we are currently encountering in Education is disheartening, so for this one half day, tīkanga Māori prevails.
We set out to share our learning after starting with “Ko au ko Papakura, Ko Papakura ko au” – what’s more important is how our students see Papakura. Telling their narratives is essential, and teaching them how they can share those narratives is even more important. We learned about specific carvings and art pieces in Te Ngira, but being able to hear it from someone at the marae and not in a book is invaluable. This is what we want our students to be able to do, to show pride with ‘poho kererū’.
We set out to share our learning with others so, our group wanted to take people on a journey of ‘Digital Narratives’. Using the stories we knew, including the Legend of Pūkekiwiriki, we told them using various apps. We also shared the story of Hape as told by Maurice Wilson, a kaumatua from Te Wai-o-Hua.
Book Creator, Storyboarding and Canva with AI were the chosen apps we wanted to explore. It made it all worthwhile knowing we were already using these tools in our class. Our students find it difficult to understand that what we do in our class helps us learn outside of school. I explain that this also helps with introducing the work content to get the most out of our learning and what we share of our learning is important. Our whānau are able to share these experiences with us and help us enjoy the teaching and learning more.
Maara Kai was a workshop shared by Aunty Mā and Kristal. This workshop showed their expertise in what we can do with the planting and how this knowledge combined with Maramataka Māori and the history of hākari can be combined in the once fertile land of Papakura to produce matauranga for our ākonga. This is contextual, totally authentic and deliberate acts of teaching which enhance our knowledge. It can also be culturally responsive to the needs of our students as it is related to their current knowledge and makes connections with the land.
Finally the last workshop was the Hīkoi up to the Maunga where the site is a Pā site which told its own story. Wiremu and Hemi helped share this story with the myriads of faces that looked on separately. What a fete!
At the beginning of the term, we decided to hīkoi up the maunga and we like to think that we were pioneering the way. We connected our hīkoi of our Maara kai with the kumara pits up on the maunga and the fertility of the land, we also noted that where there was kai, there would be water and so we followed this back to the source flowing from Hunua and perhaps finding its way down the back to the creek behind our marae.
From our hīkoi, we gathered resources and chose different Pūtaiao topics to understand our world around us and how we might use Science to show our learning. Most of us decided to look at the states of water and the Water Cycle as ākonga needed to understand how the cycle works and how we might preserve the water we have.
Other teams decided to look at erosion as a means to look at the effects of erosion on te taiao. We researched quarrying too and its impact on the environment.
From the water cycle, teams have used science as a means to showcase water filtration, and water pollution in our own environment.
So much more learning but only half a day to share. Our marae hīkoi was exciting and shared our passion for learning and what we can achieve when needed to. With closing and a karakia, we bid farewell to our whare ‘Te Ngira’, our other whare ‘Te Rangimarie’ and in turn Papakura Marae. Now in amidst the rumble of trucks, the screeching of speeding vehicles and the chatter of children and whānau, our marae sits as a metropolitan hub waiting for its next manuwhiri. – E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangaranga maha; tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa
