As we become more connected with the Tohu Whenua in our Pepeha - we are focusing on the stories of the land upon which we stand.
Ngake and Whātaitai - the Taniwha of Wellington Harbour - are important to the land around us. In our explorations of the whenua around us, we often find ourselves atop what was once the body of Whātaitai as we explore our surroundings. Our weekly forest sessions are held on the maunga where where his spirit, Te Keo settled and wept as she overlooked his body. The exit from Wellington harbour to Raukawa, the cook straight, was created by Ngake as he left the harbour. These landmarks are so important to us - we interact with these places regulalrly - they are known and familiar to our kaiako, tamariki and whānau alike - connecting our tamariki to the stories behind how they came to be helps them to deepen their own relationships to this land, and to our taniwha.
We've connected with the story of Ngake in Whātaitai in multiple mediums. We've had quiet verbal stories where our kaiako have sat with us a shared the story. We've read books the depict the story. We've sung waiata. And we've taken our own explorations into our art.
This beautiful video depicts one of our tamariki sharing their understanding of the story of Ngake and Whātaitai:
For some of our tamariki, the story of Whātaitai's passing was very sad. As kaiako we've been mindful of the impact this grief may have on our tamariki and ensured we engaged in open kōrero, continually being receptive to questions and ideas. 'Whātaitai died like Rosie died,' one of our kōtiro told us, linking her understanding of the passing away of our rāpeti last year, to Whātaitai. Grappling with large concepts like death necessitates sensitivity from kaiako and whānau. This is a sad story. It is sad the Whātaitai died. Enabling our tamariki to make sense of this has been hugely important to their processing, and the relationship with the whenua around us. 'When we go to the ngahere maybe we can bring a little present so we can make Whātaitai's spirit feel happy - poor Whātaitai,' suggested one of our tamariki. This flowed onto an art activity, initiated by the tamariki and facilitated by kaiako - they wanted to create art that depicted the taniwha, and wanted to bring cards to show Whātaitai when we were next on the forest.
Here is one of our tamariki describing their art work that depicted Ngake and Whātaitai.
This is ongoing learning for us - keeping the story of Ngake and Whātaitai alive and helping our tamariki to develop their own understandings of our stories, our histories, and our Tohu Whenua ensures this knowledge is passed on. As we continue this learning as a community we will continue to reach out to those who can add their knowledge of our taniwha and as kaiako, deepen our own learning alongside our ākonga.
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