Waiata at te awa celebrate te reo Māori

Awa and Lilio from Upper Hutt School performed with a group of tamariki beside Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River.

Waiata and kapa haka floated on the winds at Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River when tamariki from 13 Upper Hutt schools celebrated Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori, their Māori Language Moment, on the anniversary of the signing of Te Petihana Reo Māori on 14 September 1972.

Signed by 30,000 people, the petition led to the introduction of optional te reo classes in primary and secondary schools, and the creation of a one-year course to train fluent te reo Māori speakers in teaching to cover the shortfall of qualified teachers.

Tamariki perform a waiata to pay tribute to their local kapa haka, Māwai Hakona, who have been the only Wellington rōpū to have won Matatini. This year is the 50th anniversary of their win.

Champions of the cause

Fast forward 51 years and a cultural leadership rōpū in Upper Hutt shows how important the petition was. The Kaitiaki Rōpū includes a representative from each school in the Upper Hutt cluster who are either Māori, or ngākau Māori, explains Shanice Tredrea, a teacher at Upper Hutt School.

“The purpose of this rōpū is to strengthen whanaungatanga between the Upper Hutt cluster schools through collaboration, increasing opportunities to share best practice across the cluster and supporting the success of kaupapa Māori initiatives within our learning community.

Tamariki performed Tōia Mai Te Waka Nei by the awa/river.

“The representatives are champions of the cause both individually and collectively as they help lead the implementation and push the importance of kaupapa Māori in their kura so that our cluster is collectively strong in te ao Māori,” says Shanice.

Shared celebration

Along with colleagues Rochelle Burns (Trentham School) and Missey Edwards (Birchville School), Shanice says the rōpū had hoped to connect the area’s kura through waiata and haka for the 50th anniversary of Te Petihana Reo Māori.

“Already, our schools perform collaboratively through a cluster kapa haka known as Te Kāhui o Ngā Hau e Wha. Last year, to celebrate Te Petihana Reo Māori, we wanted to strengthen the connection across kura through shared celebration. Unfortunately, due to Covid, kura were hesitant to come together.

Ngā kaiako supported their tamariki as they performed.

“As restrictions eased, Rochelle and I decided to go for it this year and invite all kura within Upper Hutt to be part of it. We decided to perform at our awa, with the kaupapa being that our voices would carry down the river and connect us all. Te Awa Kairangi was also chosen for its cultural significance – how it sustained hapū and iwi with kai and allowed our tūpuna to travel by waka,” she says.

Five schools performed waiata and haka at different points along the river and eight schools joined in from their own kura.

“We practise on a regular basis, but six weeks ago we put out the wero to all of our kura in Upper Hutt that we would all be singing in unison,” says Shanice.

“I think it’s a wonderful initiative brought on by Te Petihana Reo Māori. It’s an important part of our history for our tamariki to learn about what has brought te reo into our classrooms – that moment of activism. It has been wonderful learning, not only the history, but also encouraging the language across our kura, even more than we do daily,” she says.

“We are right next to Te Awa Kairangi, which translates to the river of food from the sky, which has fed and sustained the people of this community for such a long time. We’re also just across the river from Pūrehurehu, which is our mountain cloaked in fog. For the schools in this area, the river and mountain create the cultural vibe that is necessary to really feel the wairua of it all,” adds Callan Melaugh, who teaches kapa haka at Fergusson Intermediate and is a kaiako reo Māori at Upper Hutt College.

From the four winds

Paige Nuku, a kaiako at Te Kura o Hau Karetu says that a mōteatea based on the area called Haramai Porotaka was performed alongside Te Awa Kairangi.

Kaio, Awa, Giavani and Lilio raised their voices as schools from the region joined to celebrate Te Petihana Reo Māori.

“This mōteatea was originally written as a children’s songbook by Henrietta Maxwell, a leader and te reo Māori advocate of Ngāti Porou. It talks about a child playing with a spinning top, taking it on a journey through the land. 

“Adapted for our cluster, the journey begins as you climb up the mountain ranges of Remutaka to glance down to the Hutt River flowing below, calling into the meeting place of Ōrongomai, to the ancestral house of Kahukura, the son of Rongomai. Then travelling through the valley past the sweet-smelling scent of the kāretu plants that abound along the riverbanks. It is our cluster brought together from the four winds,”
she explains.

As well as putting in hours of practice, Shanice’s tamariki talked about tūrangawaewae. “For a lot of our tamariki this is their place to stand, their awa, their whenua, so it’s important that they can build a connection and memories associated with it; especially as they are working on understanding the significance of their pepeha.”

Identity and connection

Callan says the event was important because it offers the schools and community an opportunity to come together for a shared kaupapa and is a warm embrace of Māoritanga.

“Our tamariki have put a lot of time and practice into certain waiata and haka to be able to take part in the Māori language moment. They have pretty much put their life on hold to be able to be part of something so special.

“It’s something that they find beautiful and really want to do. I have ākonga that always want to come to anything te ao Māori – wanting to do anything kapa haka, kōrero, anything around the kaupapa that is te reo and te ao Māori,” he says.

Fergusson Intermediate student Helen says that being involved required lots of practise, but was an opportunity to strengthen relationships throughout her school group, as well as with ākonga from other kura.

“Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is really important to me as it is part of who I am, part of my identity and it connects me to others. For us in the rōpū, it’s less sacrifice of time and more willingness to be there,” she says.

Benji (10) and Kaio (8), ākonga from Upper Hutt School, performed beside Te Awa Kairangi and said that Te Wiki o te Reo Māori was important to them as te reo is Aotearoa’s first language and their whānau members are Māori and wanted to learn the language as well.

Tamariki from Upper Hutt School, Fergusson Intermediate School and Plateau School performed Te Pūru, a Tūhoe haka in memory of Matua Wilson who created the Upper Hutt Cultural Festival, which takes place annually.