I worked with a group of year five and six students from Owairaka District School to turn their school pepeha inquiry into the material needed for a Living Heritage site.

Most of the work was completed by their class as a whole. The students looked at the idea of a pepeha and talked to kaumatua about the story of Wairaka, for whom Owairaka is named. I worked with a smaller group to complete the online component of the project.

My role was to help the students turn their hand written notes, reports and photographs into copy for the Living Heritage website. They already had a physical scrapbook which detailed their learning process, but this needed to be translated into a different format for online viewing. Although the students were used to typing their work, some of them had never used an online editor. Lots of learning for us all!

Our School Pepeha

A pepeha is your identity and your connections to the land (whenua).

Ko Owairaka te maunga
Ko Te Puna Wai-inu-roa o Wairaka te m?t?puna waiora.
Ko Wairaka te tupuna.
Ko Ng? Ringa Awhina te piringa.
Ko Owairaka te kura.
Anei matou, No Nga Hau e Wha, hei tauira.

Owairaka is our mountain.
Te Puna Wai-inu-roa o Wairaka is our source of living water.
Wairaka is our ancestor.
Nga Ringa Awhina is our haven/shelter.
Owairaka is our school.
Here we are from the four winds, an example.

Maku e mahi, mau e mahi, tatou katoa ka whiwhi i te matauranga teitei.

I can do it, you can do it and together we can achieve our goals.