Ko au ko te taiao, ko te taiao ko au.
Inspiration
On attending a school visit with one of our tamariki to Amesbury school, two of our kaiako, Sarah and Sonja were taken by the beautiful artistic representation of the school's pepeha that hung in their reception space.
We got in touch to see if they would share their story of how this piece came to be and they shared their inspirational story with us.
Kaiako who had local knowledge and a student kaiako Māori worked together to create the pepeha itself.
They shared with us that this work was to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Tamariki worked together in tuakana teina groups to paint, by hand, each of the different elements of the pepeha.
It was brought together by a kaiako with the maunga, awa, whenua and a whakatauki that the school felt represented their philosophy well.
Research
To create a pepha we now had to do a lot of learning. We read up and reached out to our local community, whānau, friends of whānau and local schools to find out more about the land upon which we stand.
A whānau member reached out to a colleague at Victoria University of Wellington who advised us that in choosing Tohu whenua we would need to be familiar with the stories attached to them.
Our kaiako and tamariki are familiar with the story of Ngake and Whātaitai, the taniwha of Wellington harbour.The Tohu whenua of their story, Matairangi (Mt Victoria) and Raukawa (Cook Straight) and are landmarks we can see from our centre This became a building block for us. Tamariki and kaiako shared the history of Ngake and Whātaitai with one another through play, art, story and waiata.
The land upon which we stand is Te Motu Kairangi - Miramar peninsula (once an island). We researched the history of the land, learning about Kupe's landing here, and then Tara who built the first Pā. Kaiako learned the stories of the land and shared stories with tamariki. Kaiako planned excursions to visit sites in the history and to kōrero about the land.
Kaiako and tamariki discussed the physical transformations of the land - learning about how Miramar was once an island filled with forest, birds, and even moa. Tamariki and kaiako discussed the earthquake that changed the physical landscape, creating the land bridge between Te Motu Kairangi and the mainland.
Tamariki shared their knowledge of Rūaumoko and how earthquakes come from him wriggling in the belly of Papatūānuku.
Kaiako shared stories about Kupe and Tara's arrivals when Miramar was still and island, the largest of three.
Tamariki created art of the island - depicting the dense biodiversity that once filled the forests of this place.
Tamariki and kaiako shared historic images and compared these pictures to what they could see today.
Kōrero within our community
With a deeper understanding of the land upon which we stand, tamariki and kaiako now reached out to the community for help with our language.
Whānau shared their insights into the Tohu whenua we had recognised during our learning about this place. We shared knowledge through kōrero, email, Educa and our research book on the floor in our learning space.
Next we reached out to a Te Ao Māori group for some advice around our phrasing within our mihi.
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.
With tautoko from a Te Reo Māori group our centre manager drafted our mihi. Whānau then offered to help to ensure our language was both appropriate and correct.
Together we came to the following:
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
A lose translation of this reads:
We are below the guardianship of Mt Victoria
We are beside the flowing ocean of the Cook Straight
We stand on the land of Miramar
We learn at Miramar Childcare
Working Together
Next came the visual representation of our pepeha.
Over the week of te wiki o te reo Māori in 2019 kaiako and tamariki worked together to hand paint each separate element that was needed to depict our landscape.
Tamariki helped to brainstorm the elements and arrived on: sky, clouds, mountain, land, ocean, waves, birds , trees, and a house.
We purchased a big canvas for the base and used up-cycled fabric left over from an old project to create the landmarks. Over the week tamariki created each element - the tamariki choosing paint colours each time and whether they wanted to use tools or hands. As each piece dried they waited and then began the next piece.
Once all the pieces were complete, a kaiako brought the whole thing together gluing each piece into place, and then adding our kupu atop.
The finished piece was hung on the wall on the Friday to celebrate te wiki o te reo Māori.
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