Celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Ma¯ori
Stratford High School students celebrated Te Wiki o te Reo Ma¯ori with a number of fun activities. Last week was Ma¯ori language week and to celebrate, Stratford High School Year 10 te reo Ma¯ori students organised some activities for the week, with help from Whaea Makere and te reo Ma¯ori head of department Dan Kerr.
Year 10 student Mynaro Filipo (15) was one of the students involved in organising the activities.
“It’s important to celebrate the reo as well as Ma¯ori culture,” she says.
The activities included
kapa haka, a pop-up Ma¯ori cafe, and also Ma¯ori games during the school’s lunch
break. The cafe was her fav- ourite activity to organise, Mynaro says.
“We also organised a Pasifika-theme non-uniform day for the day as well.
‘‘We were involved with the whole process, from selecting where to run the cafe to decorating the venue and also what food we’d make.
“We decided on the school’s canteen as that the most sense.”
For the food, the students picked a number of goodies to serve.
“We had cream potatoes, fry bread, lollies, drinks, and a sausage sizzle as well.”
While Mynaro isn’t sure about how much was raised, she is positive the cafe was a success.
“People were really keen to try some new food which was great.”
The money goes towards the class’s school trip at the end of the year.
“We’re unsure of what where we will be going but the money we raised will help us get there.”
As well as organising events during lunchtime, the students also organised events each form class could do together.
“Those were a lot of fun to organise, it was just really cool to see everyone get involved.”
She says there was a big uptake of students celebrating Ma¯ori culture.
“We heard a lot of students and teachers using more te reo in day-to-day conversations which was great to see.”