OTAKOU MARAE VISIT ON TUESDAY

Rooms 4, 11, 12 and 13 has a wonderful snippet of aspects of Maori culture and practice when they were fortunate enough to spend the day at the Otakou Marae with Komene and Paulette Cassidy and their helpers.

Although our classes had looked at powhiri protocol in our classes, actually being able to take part in this traditional welcome on a real marae really made this learning come alive.

Each class rotated around 4 activities throughout the day where we again followed Maori protocol in being able to visit the Urupa, try out a variety of games, participate in harakeke and learn the Otakou Marae history from Komene and Paulette, culminating in a visit to the very special church.

This was a most interesting and enjoyable visit that gave students an opportunity to learn more of local history on our doorstep while respectfully learning about marae protocol that may be needed in the future for our students.

Most grateful to Komene and Paulette, the delightful helpers from Queens High, preparation from Mrs Reddington for our Y8 classes and of course the parent helpers and students themselves.