Stratford pupil makes early start to help school and families enjoy Whānau Day

Mark Robinson, 9, was out of bed at 4am on Friday to help prepare the hāngī pit for his school's Whānau Day. Photo / Alyssa Smith

Stratford Primary School pupil Mark Robinson was up bright and early for school last week.

The nine-year-old was up at 4am on Friday, ready to help his father and other members of the school whānau start the planned school lunch cooking.

It was the Whānau Day celebration, an annual event at the school. Families are invited to come to the school with their tamariki, looking around the classrooms before enjoying hāngī together.

The hāngī is cooked on site at the school, with staff and school whānau getting to the school in the early hours of the morning to dig the hole and place hot stones in the pit before laying down the food in wire cages.

Mark says he enjoyed helping lay the hāngī.

“It was a pretty cool experience. I helped put the dirt over the hāngī to make sure the heat from the hot stones didn’t escape so all the food was cooked for everyone to enjoy.”

Every school pupil has a chance to be involved, bringing in produce for the hāngī and peeling, chopping the vegetables ready for cooking.

Kaupapa Māori head Sheenagh Fairclough says more than 450 staff, pupils and their family members enjoyed hāngī on the day.

“The vibe of the whole day was magical. When the food was lifted from the pit there was a big crowd of people watching. It was an amazing experience.”

She says being able to invite families to enjoy the day with them was great.

“Last year, Covid restrictions meant we were unable to share our hāngī with whānau so being able to invite them to the school to share this special day with us was memorable.”

She says the school plans to develop an authentic hāngī site.

“We want to go back to the authentic way of preparing and cooking hāngī. It will have a pātaka, storage for the food. The pātaka are on a raised pole and we will do that as well. We also plan to create information boards for the site, so people can read and learn about the traditional ways of hāngī.

“We also want to put a table out there so we can prepare the food on site and get it all ready before dishing it out to whānau. It is a way we can all come together and celebrate Māori tikanga.”