Te Aho Tū Roa Poutautoko Pania Newton shares some of the mahi happening in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Ngā Māra o Nehe aims to teach tamariki about how gardening would have been back in the time of our tūpuna. We believe if our tamariki can understand how our tūpuna travelled to Aotearoa bringing kai that had to acclimatise to our cooler temperatures here, then they would grow an appreciation and connection to our kai systems.
Tauira from Papakura Intermediate school soil testing
Working in collaboration with Whenua Warrior, we went into kura and engaged with tauira (students) across four workshops. Our wānanga involved:
- soil testing (soil from the kura maara)
- creating a taapapa out of scoria planting kai that our tūpuna transported from the tropical islands
- watching a video about Taapapa from Te pane o Mataoho staff.
Our first pilot workshop was at Papakaura Intermediate school. Their kaiako invited us along to the sustainability week. Across four workshops we engaged with over 70 tauira.
“I thought it was going to be boring but it was actually fun. Especially the part where we made the gardens (taapapa)” – Tauira, Papakura school.
“It was fun and interesting” – Tauira, Papakura school
Papakura Intermediate School tauira presenting their Taapapa creations.
