Te reo speaks volumes

Te reo Maori is on everyone's lips at Te Kura o Otangarei. So the nearly 200 pupils at the Whangarei primary school needed special activities to mark Maori Language Week, which ends today.
Principal Marama Reweti-Martin said the 13 teachers had lined up a series of workshops which had the youngsters making masks, paua jewellery and dream-catchers, painting murals and creating other artworks.
Dream-catcher weaving of North American origin gains a Maori perspective with the use of flax and feathers and the children learn Maori words, phrases and myths linked with all this week's practical lessons.
It all adds to the extensive Maori vocabulary the children are soaking up in the school's three total immersion and seven bilingual classes.
And Maori Language Week was to finish with a big finale beginning at six o'clock this morning when a new carving erected at the entrance to the school was to be blessed.
The totara carving, by Thomas Rauahi and assisted by Adam Erihe, shows Tane ascending to the heavens to obtain kete (baskets) of knowledge and also depicts Tuhoronuku, the fabled kite of the Ngapuhi ancestor Rahiri.
The carving puts the name Te Kura o Otangarei proudly at the entrance of what was until last year known as the Otangarei Primary School.
"It's part of the general community renewal happening in Otangarei," Ms Reweti-Martin said.
"The school is a focal point and when a proposal to change the name was put to the community last year everyone around here supported it. That's when the school board of trustees decided to commission the carving."
Along with the unveiling of the carving this morning, students were to unfurl 10 big banners each depicting a sacred mountain in the Ngapuhi rohe.
The school's community liaison officer, Ross Smith, said the banners were part of a project this year aimed at teaching the children about the whare tapu (sacred houses), mountains, rivers and people of Ngapuhi.
"They (the children) are 99.5 percent Maori. It is giving them back their identity," he said.
It also appears to be giving them a lot of joy. The school staff includes seven men - some of them support workers such as Mr White - so there are strong role models for boy students and the classrooms are cheerful with laughter and busy youngsters.
Kaumatua Pona Matenga was to officiate with karakia (prayers) at the school entrance carving ceremony this morning and everyone attending was then to invited along to a hot breakfast in the school hall.