Hui at Pukemokimoki Marae

On Thursday 7th of April, Irene, Mohanan, Ann, Yvonne and myself attended a hui at Pukemokimoki Marae in Riverbend Road. The topic of the 3 hour workshop was about 'cultural identity' in relation to the new licensing criteria. The afternoon ran in line with Maaori tikanga and kawa (protocols and customs). The group of 40 plus people were welcomed onto the marae with a powhiri, including waiata, hongi and shared kai.

Followed by that, we watched a powerpoint presentation by Christine Taare from the Ministry of Education and Parpara Wano from Camberly Kindergarten. They discussed the Ministry of Education publications, Te Whatu Pokeka and Ka Hika Tia. Other presenters shared stories and exemplars from their own early childhood centres , including teachers becoming learners and children becoming teachers (the concept of ako).

We have all reflected on what we learnt from this workshop and have reported back to the rest of the team at our staff meeting. One of our team goals this year is to deepen our understanding of bicultural practice so it was helpful to us hear from other centres and to become more familiar with these MOE publications.

Ainslee