Room 18 - Ko Wai Au

Article written by Margot Latton.

Our “ko wai au?” wall in room 18 is a very colourful wall.

The background is grey, but it was decorated by us at the beginning of the year.

At the top of it are the words “who am I?” in red and white block letters. Below that is Māori patterned paper, arranged to look like a marae. On the top of that is the large polystyrene number 18 which represents the tekoteko of our marae. Below that are our mihi.

We cut out copies of our individual school photos. Then we went home with a sheet of paper that had things we needed for our mihi and asked our parents about it. Some people’s mihi were longer than others, as some people knew more than others. We wrote down what we knew, and at school we re-wrote them again neatly inside a piece of paper. We then folded them and designed them to look like korowai (Māori cloaks). We glue our pictures of our school photos onto them to give the impression that we were wearing the cloaks. When you open these cloaks, you see our mihi which will help you learn a little bit more about the students of Room 18.