* as published in SPACE magazine, Summer, 2020 *
Haria ko ngā maharatanga anake, waiho ko ngā tapuae anake Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints
Miramar Childcare is a family run, Tuakana-teina inspired centre. We have a daily maximum of 28 tamariki (with 5 pēpi within this). Our 5 kaiako work closely with our tamariki and whānau in a house with a large garden and outdoor space, creating a home-like environment for learning.
Kei raro i te maunga kaitiaki a Matairangi
Kei te taha, e rere ana te moana o Raukawa
Kei te Motu Kairangi mātou e tū ana
Kei te whare kohungahunga o Miramar Childcare ahau e
kuraina ana
Honing in on our focus:
Kaitiakitanga is a concept that has long been celebrated as an integral aspect of our culture here at Miramar - each week we hold a tikanga ceremony where tamariki are awarded feathers in recognition of their outstanding mahi in particular areas of tikanga Māori – with kaitiakitanga being one of these areas we celebrate. Kaitiakitanga is a real and lived concept for our tamariki who can oft be overheard observing their peers caring for the garden or cleaning up rubbish and declaring, ‘what great kaitiakitanga’ to one another. Expanding on our knowledge of and commitment to kaitiakitanga seemed a natural pathway for our Enviroschool’s mahi as a teaching team.
Place based education:
Caring for our land and local environment meant deepening our knowledge of the land upon which we are fortunate enough to stand. We worked together with kaiako, tamariki, whānau, and members of the local community with knowledge of the land, te reo Māori me nga tikanga Māori to create a Pepeha. As visitors to this place, we wanted to veer away from language that implied any sense of ownership between us and the amazing land around us. We chose to depict our physical proximity to these places and wanted to encapsulate how we recognise we are privileged to stand upon this place.
Forest Sessions
Now with greater knowledge of our tohu whenua we wanted to deepen our relationships – At the beginning of our Pepeha is our maunga – Matarangi – this was our first step in really building our relationship. We started up weekly forest sessions where tamariki and kaiako spend unstructured time i te ngahere – tamariki lead the way in this special curriculum time – hīkoi , climbing rakau, collecting fallen pine cones or sticks, searching for kawakawa, looking for manu – are just some of the wondrous activities our tamariki get engaged in. Our forest sessions enable our tamariki to build reciprocal relationships with Matairangi and the Atua who are so prevalent in this space; Papatūānuku, Tāne Mahuta, Tāwhirimatea, and Haumiatiketike.
Mahinga Kai
Our connection with Papatūānuku extended to our kainga as well as our explorations of our community – we expanded on our gardens – creating a realm for Rongo-mā-Tāne to come into our space. We created two raised garden beds – filling them with broccoli, onions, and tomatoes. We harvested our kai as it was ready and our in-house cook, Bee, incorporated them into our daily meals. We expanded our herb garden with mint, rosemary, thyme, basil, and coriander – which Bee also added into our daily kai. As well as enjoying the fruits of our labour, we created a daily connection and relationship - daily watering, weeding, harvesting, and observation allowed our tamariki to deepen their knowledge of the ways of Rongo-mā-Tāne and understand their integral role as kaitiaki for these gardens.
Sensory Garden
Our younger pēpi didn’t always understand the delicate nature of our mahinga kai – so we developed a sensory garden that worked to encourage our pēpi’s desire to sniff, pick, taste, pull, and crawl over our garden (and popped a wee fence around our mahina kai to encourage exploration away from our tender kai plants!). We got in touch with a local garage who gifted us pre-loved tyres, and with the local coffee roasters who gifted us pre-loved coffee sacks – these became our planter boxes – both preloved and durable – perfect for little bodies to climb over and atop of! We filled our garden with plants of wonder that would encourage exploration, but were also durable enough for some serious TLC! Rosemary, thyme, mint, lavender, strawberries, native grasses, jasmine and salvia fill this wondrous space. This has become a daily space for exploration- and of course, kaitiakitanga as we water and care for this space.
We used the ‘Plant Me Instead’ booklet put out by Weedbusters to ensure anything that went into our garden was both safe and friendly for our local environment!
We ensure our watering is done in the evenings with a hand-held hose that has an on-off handheld spout or out watering can to ensure we’re not wasting water as we care fir our plants – we also collect any left over water from our drinking bottles or cups into our watering can so it doesn’t go to waste!
Green Walks
To extend on our awareness of what our whenua needs to be healthy and cared for, our tamariki engage in Green Walks – armed with gloves and bags, our tamariki venture out into our local community with kaiako to clean up! We’ve explored local parks and tree belts where Tāwhirimatea has collated the waste that people haven’t disposed of safely! Often these are prompted by tamariki themselves who have noticed rubbish in our wider environment and suggest we go and help out Papatūānuku by giving it a quick tidy!
Soft plastics recycling
While we have a well-established recycling system for our paper, glass, plastics and compost – our soft plastics were causing us some concern! So, we started up our own initiative to collect them all up, and when our bin is full we go on a big hikoi to our nearest soft plastics recycling bin and dispose of them safely.
Where to next for us?
Our goals for our near future are to deepen our local knowledge and relationship with our moana (Raukawa), with our local ECE centres and kura to enhance our sense of community, and with Te Motu Kairangi (Miramar Ecological Restoration) by participating in the planting of natives in the beautiful bush that surrounds us here on this beautiful peninsula.
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