Kia ora. As part of the learning in Year 9 Te Reo Māori classes, Ms Rose had the pleasure of taking a group of students to the Araiteuru Marae for half a day on November 19th.

The day was a little different than planned due the fact that an unexpected Teacher Only Day took place on our Marae visit date. As a result, we ended up joining in with a group of Year 7 and 10 students from Kavanagh College. Thankfully, they were very welcoming and it was a wonderful experience to be part of a bigger group.

The day began with a Pōwhiri/Welcome ceremony. We were very fortunate to have Paia Tane and Kerry Van der Laan accompanying us as our kaikaranga and speaker respectively. Kerry has supported a number of Columba marae visits over the years so we were grateful to have him helping us again on this occasion, and both of our guests did a wonderful job of supporting us through the ceremony. Matua Tim Lucas from Kavanagh College also spoke.

As part of the pōwhiri we sang two waiata, and the second of these, “E Toru Ngā Mea”, was beautifully led by Ripeka Potiki.

The day was organised by experienced LEOTC hosts who supported us through the Pōwhiri and then led us in interesting and fun activities, including knowledge of native trees and sports. As part of our learning we also shared our Mihimihi/personal introduction as we had been learning in class.

At the end of the morning we had an opportunity to thank our hosts during the poroporoaki/farewell. Our students really enjoyed the experience and they all represented Columba beautifully.