Gifted Name

As part of the Christchurch Rebuild Process a sub committee of the Board of Trustees has been working with our Mātauraka Mahaanui (local iwi/runga representatives) facilitator to build a Māori cultural narrative for our school. Conversations have begun around incorporating learning around local places of significance to bring a more localised curriculum focus to the forefront. In addition, it is anticipated that every student understands the names of the new buildings and their relationship one to the other, and the relevance of those names to the geographical area. This is about truly integrating Māori tikanga, stories and history into our teaching and learning programmes and our school.

The first part of this process was gifting the school a name. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tūāhuriri Education Committee, through its Chair Lynne Harata Te Aika, has gifted us the name;

Te Kāpehu - The Compass

“Ko ngā whetū te kāpehu i ngā wā o mua” – stars were the compass in the days of old.

Stars were navigational markers.

Before the introduction of a compass to Aotearoa NZ, Māori used landmarks, supplemented with the observation of the position of star constellations and planets. From sea, one could navigate following stars at night, understanding and following weather patterns (wave direction, wind direction, cloud formations, the presence and behaviours of birds.

We are in the middle of travel routes to the South-West (towards Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) for seasonal food gathering), to the North (returning to Kaiapoi Pā (near Pegasus) and beyond), to the East (to Pūtaringamotu (Deans Bush ( to Te Ihutai (the estuary) to the Port Hills, all-important food gathering places for birds, fish and plants), with the Ōtākaro and Ōpāwaho Rivers (Avon and Heathcote) not too distant as important travel routes and mahinga kai spot.

Our location is in close proximity to “Church Corner”. There is the convergence of many streets, which become a point of navigation and place finding.

We look forward to embracing our new name and are working on was to incorporate Te Kāpehu into our mission and vision. This information opens the learning and developing “eco-literacy” while understanding the significance of Te Kāpehu to our school. Additionally, we will begin research and put together a school naming narrative that ties everything together into one cohesive and relevant story, so that everyone involved with our school has the connection to place, their tūrangawaewae – their place to stand – learn a school pepehā to introduce themselves as being part of the Te Kāpehu Riccarton School whānau. It will be exciting learning for all!