Ka pai tamariki mā

He pēpi

Hohepa Timms Gray, 8lbs 8oz was born on 15 August – a son for Myra Timms and Shannon Gray; mokopuna of Major and Angela Timms.

Twins Seth and Paisley Smith Horton, were born 11 August, to Steven Horton and Kate Smith; mokopuna of Jackie Timms.

Tini King, a baby girl was born on 22 August; a mokopuna for Suzzane King.

To Rangi Clayton and Ally Williams, congratulations on the birth of Mania Ramana Mahuri-Hemi Williams-Clayton on 30 June.

Congratulations

Well done Kahurangi Tauwhare Starkey and Meighan Taylor (Jacobs whānau), who were named in the Nelson U15 netball development team squad.

Both girls play club netball for Tokomaru U15’s and were both picked as Marlborough Reps. They have had a hard season but have played fair with kaha and dignity. Ka pai kōrua, your two tāua would be very proud.

Kapa haka

Hokitika Primary School dominated the stage at Te Hui Ahurei o Te Tai o Poutini on 7 August in Westport.

On the first night of our stay in Kawatiri, we had a lot of sick tamariki who unfortunately had headaches and a vomiting bug. Some even lost their voices from training so hard. The next day they all performed and brought so much discipline and mana to the stage. It was a privilege to be in the audience and to see them take out 11 of the 12 trophies on offer and to also claim the overall title for the third year running.

I have a lot of video footage and still to this day I often cry just listening to their sweet voices and harmonies. Well done kids and to the kaiako who spent a lot of time with the tamariki – All the hard work paid off because they were amazing.

A big mihi goes out to all schools and their competitors and also to the meke judges.

Kapa haka

Our Tai o Poutini School kapa haka hui, hosted in Kawatiri, brought together schools from throughout the coast to compete in junior, intermediate and senior sections. It was a wonderful day, enjoyed by everyone, including our kaumātua, who took a day trip up to watch the kids. Our trophy, awarded for the overall winner of the junior schools competition, was won for the third time by Hokitika Primary School, who won every discipline except one.Congratulations to all of the groups who competed and to those who came away with trophies and certificates. Ka mau te wehi koutou.

Wero mātauraka – spring reading challenge

We are launching our second annual reading challenge, which runs until 12 October, aimed at encouraging tamariki and rakatahi to read, and parents to read with their tamariki.

The challenge requires tamariki and rangatahi to read each day of the school holidays, marking off a form to confirm. There’s no criteria on what you read or an expectation that you read a book each day, just that you set aside time to read each day of the holidays. Nō reira karawhiua koutou.

Every entry receives a prize and all go into a draw for the two major prizes – a tablet and digital camera. Contact the office for entry forms.

He pēpi

Nau mai haere mai ki te ao mārama ā tātou mokopuna hou.

Tāua Hapeti Stone and koro Hotorene Hepi welcome their mokopuna, Odin Phillip Hepi who was born 22 May. He is the son of Rachael and Bobby, and a little brother for Wharekauri and Alandria.

Welcome to Atticus Marshall Arts, born 24 May, son of Juanita and Nigel, and a little brother for Manu and Nixie.

Christina and Trevor Henderson are delighted to announce the arrival of their first mokopuna, Eden Mary Riwai Reeves. She was born on 17 June and is the first daughter for Kelsey and Ben Reeves and another great mokopuna for Nan Mavis Karena.

Clive and Petina Stone welcome their newest mokopuna James Benjamin Stone, who was born 25 June. James is the second son for Waipu and Ruby, and a little brother for Tautahi.

Rā whānau

Happy birthday wishes to all our precious tamariki and whānau.

August was a special month for Tāua Lynne Veal who celebrated the birthdays of her mokopuna, Te Ariki, who is six and Te Anahera Walton, who turned four.

Horse show success

On 31 August, the Martin whānau attended the annual Canterbury Arabian Horse Club show. Tamara and Ngahuia Martin entered their horses, Makaflash and Olivernotha One, in their winter woollies, in two classes of the standard bred sections.

They received twelve ribbons in total which consisted of a first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth placing.

Each year the girls enter in a number of shows to promote the usefulness of ex-race horses, alongside their mother Katrina Martin out at Taumutu. The whānau work to give these beautiful creatures another chance at life after racing, before moving them on to new homes.

Katrina and her whānau work very hard with the animals and they do an amazing job with their horses.

Science fair success

Congratulations to Whai Rawa member Whakaahurangi Gallagher, who won two awards at the NIWA Wellington Regional Science and Technology Fair in August.

Whakaahurangi is the daughter of Quinessa Sullivan (Ōnuku) and Timoti Gallagher (Rāpaki, Hokonui, Waihōpai, Awarua, Wairewa, Puketeraki, Ōnuku, Waihao, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Arowhenua, Koukourārata).

The 12-year-old accepted the Toihuarewa Award from Victoria University in Wellington and also the Society for Māori Astronomy Research and Traditions (SMART) award.

Whakaahurangi participates in the Ngāi Tahu Out of School Tuition Programme, a scheme that encourages confidence and achievement in children in areas including mathematics, the precursor to understanding science.

Whakaahurangi’s project ‘Mehemea e rua ngā marama, ka ora tonu Te Ao Mārama?’ (Would life exist on earth with two moons?) received recognition from Dr Ocean Mercier (Ngāti Porou), a Māori physicist and judge of the fair this year.

“This year was a first for te reo Māori in the Wellington regional science fair”, Dr Mercier said, “Whakaahurangi’s project was outstanding as she discussed Putaiao i te reo Māori and in English, she combined mātauranga Māori with physics and thermodynamics and she interviewed confidently.
She also received a Faculty of Education prize for her work, which recognises the exciting new ground she covered, both for te reo and for mātauranga Māori.”

Dr Mercier hopes the SMART Toihuarewa Award encourages more exhibits from te reo Māori speakers in the Wellington region in 2015.

He pēpi

Welcome to Kāi Tahu Anthony Laurence Robinson, who was born 18 July at 10.59am, weighing 4.7 kgs and measuring 54 cm long.

Flava Festival success

We celebrated another successful year at FLAVA Fest. After competing against nine other schools, Arowhenua Māori School won four out of nine categories including first in Te Reo Māori over all age groups, best kaitātaki tama, best kaitātaki kōtiro and best kākahu.

They also won second or third in all other categories they qualified for. Our tamariki were just so awesome, with almost half the school on stage and a lot of much younger children participating than in previous years. Well done to you all. Ka mau te wehi Arowhenua. Thank you to all the whānau who supported them with preparation and coming to watch on the day.

Gymnastic success

Kia ora whānau, my name is Millie Manning and I am 15. I am ranked as one of the top five, Step 9 gymnasts in New Zealand. I was recently selected to be a member of the New Zealand Development Team to travel Singapore in November to compete against other international teams.

I have been a gymnast at Wanganui Boys and Girls Gym Club (WBGGC) for the last decade. In October I will represent Wanganui-Manawatu district at Step 9 gymnastics in Auckland. I am committed to training 15 hours a week and I travel around the country, competing regionally with other gymnasts from various clubs. I am a mentor for some of the younger gymnasts at WBGGC and always try my best to assist the coaches by demonstrating and offering positive reinforcement, in particular when they are learning a new skill.

I am determined and focused in my training and I aim for excellence, always endeavouring to learn new skills. I hope all my achievements will help to develop and benefit my club and the other members.

My passion is to help develop gymnastics as a sport in Wanganui and to influence Ngāi Tahu whānau. Gymnastics benefits young people in so many ways, helping to build confidence, focus, determination, self-esteem, co-ordination, flexibility, balance, strength and fitness. In fact it has been proven that gymnastics is an ideal foundation for any sport that a gymnast may want to change to, such as athletics or hockey.

I want to continue to compete in gymnastics and my ultimate goal is to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games. In the meantime, I want to continue to train hard and to assist the club with coaching, mentoring, working bees, fundraising, doing displays in the community such as relay for life, the Christmas parade and other community events.

I understand that in order to receive, I have to give and I feel that not only makes me a better person, but a stronger, more determined athlete who has to work hard for my achievements and not take anything for granted. I am very committed to gymnastics and almost never have a day off training. I am determined to reach excellence and gain entry into the top Step 10 competitive artistic gymnastics for next year. I hope that by travelling to Singapore with the NZ development team, I will be able to take my gymnastic career to another level. I also hope to gain more confidence, increase my skills, meet other gymnasts, coaches and judges from the international stage, so I am able to improve and share my knowledge with others at my club and in the community.

The funding required is for uniforms, which include t-shirt, leotard and tracksuit, also for accommodation and travel expenses.

This experience would be life-changing and I am ready for the challenge and excited about the possibilities. As New Zealand is such an isolated country, it is difficult to get exposure, so an opportunity like this is absolutely tremendous.

Thank-you for this opportunity for me to ask for your support, in the hope that I will help promote gymnastics around our country. I have enclosed a link for whānau to donate so that I am able to attend the Singapore. Nā Millie Manning. https://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/supportmillie

Slam poetry/Taonga pūoro wānanga

On 22-24 August, a group of our rangatahi went to Christchurch to take part in the Te Kura Maurea Slam poetry/ Taonga pūoro wānanga along with local Christchurch rangatahi and some from Te Tai Poutini.

This wānanga was an opportunity for rangatahi to be creative and to paint pictures through poetry and sound.

Throughout the weekend our rangatahi were shown around the Kaiapoi pā and also went through the new Pegasus development.

Nō reira he mihi tēnei ki te whānau o Te Kura Maurea mō ā koutou mahi rangatira, me te whānau whānui o Puketeraki i whai wā ki te haere atu. Ki a koutou ngā rangatahi, e kīia ana te kōrero. Kia tipu te whaihanga.

Kia ora koutou katoa, ngā mihi aroha e te whānau whānui o Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha hoki.

Greetings one and all, how the heck are you all?
We have recently attended and supported lots of community hui and mihi. We were fortunate to also host a few kapa haka performances from some of our local kōhanga, early childhood centre and a primary school. They were fantastic and we managed to get some great photos of the day also.

The launch of Pūtahitanga and the workshop were held at the marae with a good turnout. Will look forward to seeing the ideas from whānau come to fruition.

Lots of other things are happening as well as our normal hui. The local Polyfest was again a fantastic success and well done to all those who participated.

The Southern Institute of Technology nursing and nanny students came to visit us. It was great to see and talk with them. The local Te Ture Whenua hui was held at Ascot Park and chaired by Michael Skerrett.

Exciting news from the kitchen, they are looking at getting a combi cooker – there will be nothing stopping them now.

We now have our first set of draft redevelopment plans for the wharekai. A great start and the working group is currently looking at them. Our waharoa is being replaced by James York on 6 September and you will get updated in the next pānui.

I hear they had a weka cull? Where’s mine? My pot is still empty.

Anyway whānau, I hope you are all well and slowly getting over the winter blues, it’s spring now so yay.

Big hello to whānau in the north and overseas. Keep in touch with your whānau here and let us know you are ka pai? Well, it’s a short pānui this month, stay safe and keep well whānau. Aroha nui to you all. Nā Squirrel on the Hill.

Riverton Primary School exchange

Every year, Riverton Primary School participates in an exchange with Melbourne-based Scoresby School. Ten rangatahi from Scoresby School travelled over in March and in return 10 Riverton kids were sent to Melbourne in May. My family hosted two girls, their names were Olivia and Georgia.  We showed them round our amazing town and city, where they got to experience and try new things.

I was one of 10 Riverton Primary School children who went on this amazing trip. I fundraised for my trip by selling raffles tickets and scratchy boards and I received great support from my community. I would like to say a big thank you to the Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka for their $200 donation.

In the beginning, I was nervous but as I walked towards the plane I started to feel less unsure. When we landed in Christchurch, I saw some of my whānau there. We then flew to Auckland – I had never been there before.

When we landed in wonderful Melbourne, I was over the moon. We walked through customs and grabbed our bags and went to meet our host families.

I was staying with Olivia’s family with my class mate, Tiana. I wasn’t quite sure at first but then I started to get confident. We went back to their home and slept. Highlights of the trip were visiting the aquarium, Eureka Tower, Science Works, the markets, Flinders Street Station, Melbourne Zoo, the Puffing Billy and the RFL football game. My host family took Tiana and I to the Jump factory. I really enjoyed my time there and really liked my host family. If you ever get the opportunity to do something like this, I suggest you take it. This was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Nā Tania Bull.