Last week in Room 10 - Camille Collins came to our class to share her Māori heritage with Room 10. Camille is the mum of Lily Collins, a Room 10 student- and together they presented together some of the aspects of their Māori culture.

Isobel Y wrote about the experience through her own eyes:

“Last week, Lily’s mum Camille and her little brother Lewis came in to share about their Māori culture. First they talked about their pepeha - a pepeha is something that talks about your whakapapa, and the special places of your life. Next they talked about a tangi - This is when you have a funeral for loved ones passing away and you stay there for about three days to celebrate their life with other people from your whanau. Then they talked to us about their marae - a marae is a meeting house and to show respect in a marae you don't run or wear shoes. They also explained about greenstone which is really called pounamu. We learned it is a taonga that has to be gifted to you and some people get it when they're born and the whanau do a special karakia for a good future. They talked about their iwi which is Ngāti Apa, Whanganui. We also found out about a hangi - which is where you use a traditional method to cook food in the ground and you cook it for about three hours. They talked about tikanga (special rules) and Camille read us a story called Rata and the Waka. I think it tells you about the power of forgiveness. It was a valuable experience for us and we all learnt a lot.”