Schools immersed in te reo

Jeffrey Addison and Whaitaima Te Whare from the Toro Pikopiko Puppet theatre perform the story of Maui fishing up Aotearoa to about 300 local children as part of Maori Language Week. Photo / John Borren

Hundreds of delighted children watched on as Toro Pikopiko Puppet theatre showed Maui, using his magical ancestral jawbone to fish up the North Island of Aotearoa.

The story of Te Ika a Maui (Maui's fish, the North Island) was presented in a bilingual puppet show at Baycourt on Tuesday, attended by about 300 local kids aged 3 to 8.

The presentation was put on for schools as part of Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori (Maori Language Week).

Hangi, kapa haka, karakia and Maori kai cooking classes are just some of the things planned at many schools across the Bay this week.

Pillans Point School would be putting down a hangi for the whole school tomorrow morning, principal Matt Simeon said.

While they had other activities in classes, this would be the major event for the week.

The fire would be lit at 5am, dug up for lunch at 11.30am, while the kapa haka group would perform at 10am, he said.

Students at Tauranga Intermediate School would also be cooking up a storm in their Maori kai cooking classes, assistant principal Blake Carlin said.

Omokoroa Point School would be sharing te reo Maori with visitors from overseas, principal Vicki Knell said.

"For a bit of a twist, we have 17 Japanese students who have arrived - they are staying with us for two weeks and our students have started teaching them some Maori language."

At Katikati College, students were hunting for te reo Maori treasure thanks to a creative idea from Lindsay Fish from the English faculty.

"She has organised a treasure hunt to celebrate Maori Language Week," principal Neil Harray said.

"We have a number of useful phrases on posters around the school displayed in prominent positions.

"There is a chosen phrase each day and the students must find the location of the phrase and go into the classroom and if they pronounce the phrase correctly they get an instant prize."

Fishing up an island

Maui is the gifted, clever demigod of Polynesian mythology responsible for fishing up the North Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

After a miraculous birth and upbringing Maui won the affection of his supernatural parents, taught useful arts to mankind, snared the sun and tamed fire. But one of his most famous feats was fishing up the North Island.