The Year 9 Social Studies students spent term 1 exploring their identity and what influences have made them the young men they are.

Our overarching theme of whanaungatanga throughout Social Studies underpinned our learning and connection with ourselves and others.

All Year 9 students had the opportunity to go to Karitane and experience an engaging programme at Puketeraki marae. Students participated in different workshops on Mahina Kai (traditional kai gathering practices), Raranga (weaving with harakeke), Rongoa Māori (looking at native plants used for traditional Māori healing), Kēmu/Taonga Tākaro (variety of games from a Māori perspective).

A big thank you to the Tangata Whenua at Puketeraki for hosting us. To the students who stood up and took leadership roles throughout the day, we admire your courage and contributions.

The following are some of the students' reflections on the day:

“I was really pleased with my musical poi actually! It was really hard using a mussel shell to scrape the bottom layer or Harakeke ‘bark’, but once you got the hang of it, it was a breeze! I had to get one of the helpers to plait the fibres together (because I’m terrible at plaiting) but I was really pleased with it!”
David Cole

“I enjoyed weaving. For the weaving I was given 8 strips of harakeke, a mussel shell and we were instructed on how to find the white fibers underneath the green outer layer of flax. My instructor, Kiri, was very good at it and because of her I managed to create an original poi, the type they used before the poi were made round. The thing I enjoyed most about Weaving was the satisfying feeling when the back strip of flax peeled away from the mussel shell.” Max Cutfield

“The Māori games we played were very fun because it's always interesting learning about Māori traditions. My favourite one was with the rakau and passing it round in a circle, I got down to the final and then lost from bad timing. I learnt how much coordination is key and to focus on yourself sometimes not anyone else. Xavier was instructing us and seemed like a pro at the game.”
Flynn MacGill-Brown

“The first activity my group did was learning about the many uses for natural materials like kelp. We learnt how to utilize a square of bull kelp to make bags for cooking and storage. The next thing we did was make a pair of shoes out of the seaweed and after that we turned the stem into a bouncy ball. This activity was my favourite because our instructor Grumpy was funny and she opened my mind up to the uses of the environment.”
Henry Lucas