Kōmiti Māori is our Māori council made up of the students in Te Kura Kōhine o Ōtakaro. This year our kaiako tautoko was Hēni Waipouri and Melanie Mcrandle.

Our ākonga who lead the council were Paige Solomon-Osborn as Mana Kotiro and Makoia Patterson as Mana Kōtiro Tuarua. We would also like to give a big mihi to Manaaki Waretini-Beaumont who supported our Mana Kotiro throughout the year.

The kaupapa for Kōmiti Māori in 2022 was to not just celebrate Te Ao Māori but also celebrate our Māori students in the kura and their achievements throughout the year. It was also to show our Māori students that their voice matters and showing our fellow students and teachers within the kura what our culture consists of and how beautiful it is to be Māori. The Kōmiti Māori have worked amazingly hard this year to bring our kaupapa to life despite having yet a hard year with Covid. A couple of highlights and things that the Kōmiti ran this year were our celebrations for Matariki and Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Also the pronunciation workshop the Kōmiti ran with kaiako went well.

During the week of Matariki the Kōmiti organised a couple of events to celebrate the Māori new year. The girls hand painted and designed the stars of Matariki and put them around the school for a scavenger hunt, with the meaning and names of each star. There was also some weaving in the school whare, Te Paeroa. The girls along with Whaea Hēni had taken girls through weaving bracelets.

There was also wishing boxes put around the school. This was representing the star Hiwa-I-te-rangi, and it allowed students around the school to put their wishes and aspirations in it for the year. We also had boxes that represented Pohutukawa and was for students and teachers to write any messages to any friends or whānau members who have passed. We gathered these messages together and buried them. We also finished the week off with doing a Kai for the ākonga and kaiako in the kura.

The kōmiti Māori also celebrated Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori in another week of several events celebrating Te ao Māori and Te reo Māori. The girls started off the week with the international students and went through a waiata poi and how to introduce themselves in Te Reo. They had also organised to put kīwaha on T-shirts. Kōmiti Māori had also ran a friendly game of ki o rahi to bring the school together. The girls also prepared some Kai for the kaiako and changed the bells to some waiata Māori for the week to encourage more people to speak in Te Reo Māori.

Also during this week, the kōmiti girls organised a pronounciation workshop with the kaiako in the kura to help with pronunciation of Māori kupu and confidence in speaking Te reo Māori. They went through a waiata to establish the vowels and then took the kaiako through the process of learning and establishing their pepeha.

The kōmiti Māori also participated in gala day with a classic of fried bread and maple syrup and going around talking with kaiako and ākonga encouraging them to speak a few Māori words in exchange for a goodie. We had also finished the Hine Aroaro Pari Kōrero series, that was organised by Kelly Tikao for all Māori akonga in the kura. It was a series where we had local Māori wāhine come in and give a kōrero about their stories, their journey of what they had experienced to get to where they are today. These talks took place every month and had started off online as we had Covid restrictions. Once these eased up and, we ended the year on a high with

kanohi ki te kanohi kōrero. These kōrero where followed with a Kai from Kai Connoisseurs. We would like to give a big mihi to Kelly Tikao who organised and let our kura be a part of this series.

The final celebrations for Kōmiti Māori will be our Whakanui celebrations. The night will be a celebration of ākonga Māori and their achievements of the year with their whānau, followed with a performance from our kapa haka, and kai of course. There are serval certificates to give out to our girls and we look forward to celebrating those achievements with each other and their whanau.

The students who represented the Kōmiti Māori in our kura for 2022 were:

• Ella Cummings
• Rongomaipapa Curtis
• Tamara Davis
• Sophia Davidson
• Rya Fonotia
• Te araroa Hona
• Malhi McClay
• Reine Pene
• Arika Pokere-Tamepo
• Hinekaea Taratoa Bannister
• Taaniko Tehae
• Manaia koroheke
• Manaaki Waretini Beaumont
• Ramari Wharepapa
• Paige Solomon-Osborn as head of kōmiti Māori, Mana Kōtiro
• Makoia Patterson, Mana Kōtiro Tuarua