Whanganui's St John's Hill School celebrates 89th birthday

Chad Carston (left) and Henry Jacques snip the ribbon to open the Our Waka/Our Journeys exhibition at St John's Hill School in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley

Hands shot up when St John's Hill School principal Michael Fitzgerald asked whether the children enjoyed their three-day art intensive last week.

The school celebrated its 89th birthday by inviting parents and grandparents on Friday morning, to see what the children had made. The guests were welcomed with a haka and waiata from Year 6 pupils, and Fitzgerald talked about the three days of art.

"I was blown away by the development of ideas, experiences and expressions as the kids were building their pieces," he said.

It had been eight or 10 years since the school had last had an art intensive.

"Dare I say it, not since National Standards came in. Now they are taken away and we are allowed to do art and science and all those other creative things."

The exhibition had a theme, Ngā Hekenga/Our Waka, Our Journeys. It was initiated by the Whanganui Learning Centre and each child made a piece about how their family came to be here, usually it involved a means of transport.

Part of the point was getting the children to talk about what they had made, and tell their family stories.

Whanganui Regional Museum educator Margie Beautrais helped. She has been amazed at people's response to the theme, and she said there may be 1000 waka ready for exhibition by the end of the month.

"It's a very equalising project. Whether we are tāngata whenua or tau iwi we came here as immigrants and descendants of immigrants. It could have been from Pacific Islands 1000 years ago or Korea last week."

However people came, they came for the same reason.

"We have all come here with the aim of having a better life," she said.