Every year, Y11 Drama students create a short play for their internal NCEA assessment. This year was no different, however, a new development was the focus on WHANAUNGATANGA.

Whanaungatanga:  Relationship, kinship, sense of family connection - a relationship through shared experiences and working together which provides people with a sense of belonging. It develops as a result of kinship rights and obligations, which also serve to strengthen each member of the group. 

‘It’s always been a strong part of what we do and who we are in Drama,’ said Mrs Vercoe. ‘However, it was awesome to be able to highlight and discuss this beautiful Māori kaupapa and look at how it is the foundation and strength in the creation of a piece. It’s all about working together. Promoting whanaungatanga helps protect the mana of each individual, creates a sense of belonging, and lifts the mana of the story too.’

Here’s what some Year 11 students discovered as they devised their pieces last term:

As time began to move… you can see a subtle change between the sentences regarding whanaungatanga. It begins to make the change between ‘I created whanaungatanga…” to “we created whanaungatanga…’’ “Whanaungatanga was created by…”  This is when I began to come to the realisation that whanaungatanga is not a concept that one person can achieve by themselves. The entire point of it is that it's a little bit of everyone's ideas, time, and effort.’ Helen Heipi-Watson

‘Due to whanaungatanga being a key value throughout this assessment for collaborative mahi, I tried my best to support everyone and raise our teamwork throughout the whole process of creating our drama piece. I encouraged and asked everyone about their thoughts and feelings whenever we tried out something new or resolved creative differences. ‘ Aiza Mustasam

Such a great learning experience! "Ehara toa i te toa takitahi, engari, he toa takitini" – My success (or my strength) is not that of a single person but instead the strength of many.