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Ngā wawata me ngā tūtohunga
Our Aspirations

Māku te rā e tō ana; kei a koe te urunga ake o te rā
Let mine be the setting sun; yours is the dawning of a new day

The Marlborough Schools project presents our community with a chance to create something new.

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There is an opportunity to incorporate Māori models of education and health that have hitherto been considered ‘alternative’ into our education system and to transition away from models that do not serve whānau Māori. This transition will enable the schools and their communities to achieve their full potential.

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We see the latency in drawing on some of the Māori frameworks already operating nationally and applying them in the Marlborough Schools context. These frameworks include (but are not limited to):

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  • Te Mana o te Wai

  • Te Pae Mahutonga

  • Te Whare Tapa Whā

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Aspirations for tauira

  • Understand the importance of learning and maintaining knowledge of Iwi and Māori,

  • Know their whakapapa, ancestry, and identity

  • Have self-determination in making their own future

  • Have patience, commitment, and resilience to complete tasks

  • Recognise the skill and excellence in oneself and others

Aspirations for the community

  • Encourage kaumātua participation to share local knowledge

  • See the importance of learning and maintaining knowledge of Iwi and Māori

  • Understand how we support those who might have been enrolled in facilities no longer available such as the community college

Aspirations for the schools leadership, staff, and teachers

  • The establishment of a tangata whenua seat on the governing Board (not a Māori seat) to ensure an effective tangata whenua voice on decision making bodies.

  • Grow opportunities for mana whenua to participate in school processes and activities.

  • Normalise the use of te reo Māori and raising the profile of a shared Māori and Pākehā heritage.

  • The everyday application and promotion of tikanga and kawa.

Aspirations for the curriculum

  • A curriculum reflective of the history and environment of Wairau.

  • Teaching and learning about resistance and adaptation strategies.

  • A curriculum which tackles the challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, loss of freshwater, and waste by supporting the mātauranga of the iwi of Wairau.

  • Research about the history of the school land and how it became an urbanised environment with indigenous vegetation removed, and land alienated from tangata whenua.

  • Provide localised Māori context for learning in school and subject curriculum.

  • Re-indigenisation / de-colonisation of teaching and learning spaces.

  • Utilising local marae as places of teaching and learning.

Aspirations for the physical space

  • New schools to model a Pā with various spaces that allow for cultural practices. At least one space should be large enough to accommodate students, staff, and community.

  • The colleges site will have as one of its focal points Ngā Wairau o Ruatere or its tributaries with clearly demarcated areas along the banks that reflect the concept of nohoanga.

  • New schools will have areas set aside as whakatā and whakangā where respite and rejuvenation can take place, where students can reflect, study, and generally “fill their cups”.

  • New schools will have robust systems and areas set aside for effective waste management incorporating excellent approaches to liquid and solid waste management to encourage and maintain the mauri of the schools.

  • Permanent spaces where Māori can learn through their culture, about their culture, and celebrate their culture.
    Sites reflect community aspirations and/or the past, present, and future of the school.

  • Naming in te reo Māori buildings, amenities, groups in the school, activities, learning progressions, etc. These could use functional names or ones related to stories or figures that personify the thing being named.

  • Developing visual themes and designs, for example, a school logo, house symbols.

  • Mātauranga Māori, sustaining cultural knowledge, revitalising mana whenua language(s) and honouring significant iwi histories visible on sites.

  • Traditional placement of facilities such as:

    • toilets located out of sight from food preparation and consumption areas, ideally external;

    • food consumption areas kept separate but adjacent to assembly areas and internal communal areas of assembly located near the main entrance (ātea);

    • external communal covered space (mahau;

    • washing/bathing/food downstream and/or separate from one another;

    • a line (ideally curved) that runs the length of the site to allow the free flow of mauri throughout the complex (external or internal), and;

    • a central spine throughout the main complex.

© Copyright 2022 by The iwi of Te Tātoru o Wairau.

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