The children at Kerikeri Kindergarten have something most others don't, thanks to the work of one of their teachers.
Sheryl Hughes won a $5000 Kauri Award Scholarship from the Northland Kindergarten Association recently, to promote tikanga Maori in kindergartens, and has used the money to explore the traditions, symbols and
meanings behind traditional Maori carving by having a hand-carved waka made for the kindergarten.
The totara waka was crafted by Oromahoe carver Renata Tane. A carver for six years, a one-time student at Te Puia New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua and a Kerikeri Kindergarten 'old boy,' Mr Tane said he had carved a waka tete, a general-purpose waka or fishing vessel, now known as Te Waka o Mana Ko.
Although the waka had a generic form he had wanted to make sure it had a strong Northland influence. The head is a wheku, of pre-European design, while the tail (taurapa) has a breaching whale, influenced by documentaries Mr Tane was watching at the time. The head and tail are decorated with Northland designs (unaunahi).
"The head is quite a generic form of carving," Mr Tane said. "I know of lots of tribes that are using it. I was given a book, Rata and the Tree, by the children at Kerikeri Kindergarten which had a picture of that head in it, so the head of their waka is based on that."
