Ko Pātangata te maunga, ko Wharekahika te awa ko Hinemaurea te marae, ko Ngāti Porou te iwi, ko Tūwhakairiora te hapū, ko Horouta te waka. Ko wai ahau? Ko Erana Haerewa ahau. Nō Wharekahika, nō Ngāti Porou hoki. Ko au te kaihautū o te waka o Te Puna Reo o Puhi Kaiti. Tokoono ōku tamariki, tokowaru ōku mokopuna. Kei a ratou aku taonga mō apōpō. Tēnei te mihi ki a koutou i tēnei rā.
My name is Erana Haerewa and I am the tumuaki of Te Puna Reo Puhi Kaiti. We are a Māori immersion centre, licensed for 37 tamariki. We have 11 kaiako within our team and our curriculum delivery is based on Ngāti Poroutanga. Our kaitiakitanga project here at Te Puna Reo is focused on the whenua and for our children to be connected to Papatūānuku. The project here, sustaining the inganga, started from a little boy who was very, very keen on the outdoors and marine life. His dad is a marine biologist in Tauranga Moana and he was bringing that learning back into Puna. Through my networking and my contacts within the community, I was able to source an environmentalist to come on board with us and work with us for a year with our Kaitiakitanga practice and project where we helped sustain inanga. The children made inanga rolls. They visited the streams and they measured the life of the inanga in the streams, they planted trees, they really became engaged in that learning and passionate about wildlife and doing their bit for Papatūānuku. The results were amazing because now we’ve got keen little marine biologists here at Puna Reo and that learning has gone back into their own lives and with their own whānau. Children engaging and wanting to go to the beach and kohikohi rāpihi go fishing so the families have really become engaged.
