In 2018, we commissioned a Māori artist, Josh Paranihi, to carve 5 unique pou, one for each of our individual values - aroha, mana, whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga.

We had the privilege of welcoming in Josh, his whānau and the pou with a formal mihi whakatau in November and unveiling them to our staff, students and whānau.

Josh worked on carving the pou for approximately 6 months and we captured his beautiful kōrero about what each of the carvings represents in a video below - please feel free to watch it! 

All five pou are now safely bracketed into our newly landscaped garden area and are a beautiful piece of artwork that first greets our visitors and members of our school whānau each day,  strongly representing the values that are important to us at Te Kura o te Whata. 

You can see the Kaitiakitanga pou right at the front, standing as a guardian and protector of our school and wider community!  Ātaahua rawa!