At the start of this year our staff went on a PD day to our local Marae. Once we there we talked about connecting our students to the local area through our school pepeha. It was great for us as staff to learn our pepeha and have it broken down. It was broken down into meaning of the words and understanding of each of the locations and their significance to our school and students.
Our Pepeha:
Ko Whakapoungakau
te pae maunga
Ko Pukepoto te
tihi
Ko Waingaehe te
awa
Ko te
Rotoruanui-a-Kahumata-momoe
Ko Mokoia te
Motutapu-a-Tinirau
Ko Puketawhero te
papawhenua
Ko Whakaue te iwi
Ko Roro-o-terangi
te hapu
Ko Mokoia te kura
Tihei mauriora
One of our teachers taught this to the students' during our camp rotation. She taught it to the students line by line. She started with our maunga and showed the students what it was, where it was and broke down the meaning of the word 'Whakapoungakau'. She then told the students to draw a mountain range on their paper and label it. She did this line by line until the students had a piece of art that reflected our pepeha. What I love most about this is the work my students came back with was all different based upon their interpretation and the way they visualized each feature.
