Last term, on the second-to-last day of school, we (Ngā Here Kahikatea) organised a two-hour open day in our Whare, we had members of our school and town community enter our whare as guests, to celebrate Matariki/Puanga and to help them learn more about Matariki/Puanga. We had different posters around the room, each talking about one of the whetu (stars) that are important to Matariki/Puanga, and what each whetu signifies, for example, the whetu, Matariki, signifies hospitality and kindness towards other people. We also had other posters talking about what Matariki/Puanga means to Māori in general, talking about how it signifies the Māori New Year, and how it is a time for us to come together as a community. Along with this, we had food and drink for our guests, drinks were offered often, to the guests by our class students. Halfway through the opening day, the class did a Kapahaka performance to entertain our guests. It was a successful day and we have had great feedback about it.

Last term on July 8th which also happened to be the second to last day of the school term the NHK class (Nga Here Kahikatea) stayed in Te Whare Akoranga AKA the school whare. We began our evening at 5pm when the rest of our class arrived including some teachers and whanau. Due to the class teacher aide, Matua G being away we had another kaiako (teacher) volunteer to take part, Miss Wise, who was keen to meet the people in the class. After everyone had arrived and had socialized for a while we had dinner. All the desks we would usually use for our school work had been pushed together and were covered in a blanket of food including vegetables and meats such as pork and chicken which had been cooked in a kai cooker which is a sort of smoker that emulates a hangi. After everyone had finished eating the delicious dinner more food proceeded to appear from the kitchen, there was cake, pudding, ice cream and much more for everyone to indulge themselves in. After most people were satisfied with the meal the table was cleared and the tables were pushed to the sides of the room allowing more space for what was next in the eventful night. By now it was roughly 8 o,clock and we had a guest who had come to talk with us about what it meant to be Māori and Pasifika, her name was whaea Emma. Whaea Emma had the class sit in a circle on the floor and talked to us all about her experiences with being Māori and what she thought about being Māori, Whaea Emma than had us split up into groups of four and talk about certain topics eg. Māori education. We repeated this 3 times each time we were given a new topic to talk about. Once we finished talking in our groups one person was selected from each group to speak to the class about what their group had spoken about. It was very interesting hearing what everyone had to say about what it meant to be Māori and Pasifika. Following the talk, whaea Emma left. About half an hour later some students were allowed to play in the gym, the majority of the class headed to the gym while a few people stayed behind including myself to play Mario Kart on the projector. About an hour or two later everyone returned to the whare to settle down for the night which did not seem to happen as people continued talking until the early hours of the morning depriving other students of the sleep they would need for the following day of school. We were awoken at 8am by our kaiako(teacher) whaea Kylie knocked on the wall 5 times and proceeded to recite a karakia (similar to a prayer) to begin our day. Afew people had trouble getting out of bed from the lack of sleep while others got up straight away to get ready for school. After breakfast the whare was vacuumed and the mattresses were stacked allowing for the classroom to be used for the rest of the day. Overall I had a great time on the noho (stay, sleepover) as did everyone else who had stayed. It couldn't have taken place without the fantastic kaiako who made it a reality, a huge mihi to whaea Kylie for organising it, Whaea Erin for sorting out the kai and Miss Wise for coming along and keeping an eye on us.

Written by Nikau Dymond and Rivir Crombie - Students of Ngā Here Kahikatea (our kaupapa Māori pathway class).