Our annual Rā Mana Wāhine was held last week as part of our celebrations for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori on 15 September at the Boys' and Girls’ Institute in central Wellington.

This day was for our ākonga Māori to experience and learn about some different aspects of Te Ao Māori. We were lucky enough to have a range of inspiring facilitators: Te Rehia from the Boys' and Girls’ Institute, Kahu from Kauae Raro, and Sian, a local tā moko artist came and ran a range of activities with the students.

The students learnt about using the different clays and dirts from the whenua to create paints and dyes, how to create ukutangi, a type of taonga pūoro (musical instrument) using clay and some of the pūrākau behind tā moko and tā moko in more current times.

We were extremely fortunate to have such talented and knowledgeable people from our community come in and share their knowledge with our students. Ngā mihi nui for their contributions.