Friday 2 July, 2021

Te Whakarewatanga

This year, Matariki was launched at 5:30 am on Friday 2 July at Tāmaki College with the kawe mate* of my grandfather Te Wera Nōpera and Warren Riwai, both long-serving staff members at Tāmaki College. Our families and friends carried their photos onto Te Poho o Tāmaki, the school marae, to be mourned over and farewelled for the last time before they embarked on their journeys to the afterlife.

I was most proud of my senior Te Reo Māori tauira, who arrived early and took the lead during the pōwhiri and blessing ceremonies. When I brought our ope (visiting party) onto the marae with a karanga (welcoming call), two of my tauira responded. They also helped prepare kai and entertain our manuhiri in the wharekai (dining hall). I am witnessing growth in my tauira. When they once refused to say a karakia (incantation), they were here seen to sing waiata (song), karakia, and karanga.

After the pōwhiri, we assembled on the where we had planted nine pā harakeke, each named after the nine stars of Matariki. The Manukau Botanical Gardens gifted these harakeke as a koha for the gardening mahi (work) my Senior Te Reo Māori tauira did for them two weeks prior.

We then proceeded to the school library to bless the renaming of the Māori book collection in the school Library to Te Wera Nōpera Collection.

In keeping with the school’s tradition, we concluded the launch by raising the flag at the front of the school office.

The processions were led by mana whenua (local iwi) representative, Matua Tautoko Witika and my own kaumātua (elder) Papa Jimmy Heta.

These events had personal, cultural as well as professional significance for me. They were personal because they included my koro (grandfather). They were cultural as they are tikanga or the practice of relational ethics with the harakeke, the dead, and the people in attendance. It held professional importance as they were experiences intended to enrich the lives of my senior tauira. It has always been my plan to strengthen their identity by saturating them with as much kaupapa (event) and reo Māori as I possibly can.