Wānanga for Waikato-Tainui Kia Eke Panuku Schools

Posted on 01 December, 2016

Thirteen Kia Eke Panuku schools located within the Waikato-Tainui region participated in a wānanga hosted by Tuakau College recently.

The theme for this professional learning opportunity was framed by one of Kingi Tawhiao’s tongi or prophetic sayings:

‘Māku anō e hanga i tōku nei whare,
Ko nga poupou he mahoe he patete,
Ko te tahuhu he hinau.
Me whakatupu ki te hua o te rengarenga
Me whakapakari ki te hua o te kawariki.’

‘I will build my house,
the pillars will be made of mahoe and patete,
the ridgebeam of hinau.
It shall grow and blossom like that of the rengarenga
And be strong and flourish like the kawariki.’

Sharing perspectives and narratives
Schools were invited to share examples of their own success within Kia Eke Panuku with others, and engage in presentations by guest speakers to begin collectively and collaboratively strategising a continued focus on accelerating and advancing improved educational outcomes for their Māori students and communities.

The day began with an engaging and insightful presentation by Marcus Akuhata-Brown who reiterated the important place of identity, language, culture, maatauranga, and relationships in our schools and communities. His personal narrative connected the audience to the significant relevance of connections to people and place, and a relentless focus on having high expectations of our Māori students.

Waikato-Tainui Education Advisor Raewyn Mahara, shared developments relating to the Kawenata partnership and recent educational initiatives that have been made available to schools and their students who are Waikato-Tainui descendants and tribal beneficiaries. This provided greater clarification and impetus for schools looking to engage as Kawenata schools, and strengthened opportunities for reciprocal and educationally powerful partnerships with iwi.

The closing keynote presentation by Mere Berryman synthesised the key messages throughout the day beginning with intergenerational stories of Māori experience and connections to the past and present.

Mere provided a timely reminder that as we move forward into a new professional learning landscape which highlights different priorities, spaces of marginalization, can also become spaces of resistance and hope. Ka Hikitia and educational partnerships with iwi offer spaces for schools to build their own whare with strong foundations and posts to uphold our ongoing and unrelentless focus on Māori potential and improving the educational outcomes of Māori students.