The Great Migration – Te Hekenga mai o ngā waka

Room 3 tamariki and Te Mahia School are very lucky to have Whaea Adelaide join our staff at Te Mahia. Whaea Adelaide is in class with us in the afternoons. Her role at our school is Teacher Aide and she is a facilitator of Te Reo Māori. We are all learning kupu hou (new words), kupu ruarua (phrases), and haurārangi (sentences) from her. She has a wealth of knowledge and her Te reo is beautiful.

Today the tamariki were learning about Te Hekenga mai o ngā waka, namely the two waka of our area – Kurahaupō and Takitimu. As well as using the phrases:

Nō mai rā anō – Long time ago

Nāwai rā – eventually or after awhile 

The story began like so….

A long time ago a man called Kupe travelled around the seas and landed in Aotearoa. Then he sailed back to the islands and he told the people of the islands that he had discovered a new land. So the people prepared themselves by building them waka. The people sailed from the Pacific islands and they used the stars to navigate their way to Aotearoa. The tamariki were interested in the stars and asked a lot of questions in relation to how the people followed the stars to get to Aotearoa. There were 7 waka that came over. Two of those waka were Kurahaupō and Takitimu.

When the Kurahaupō waka arrived in Aotearoa it landed up North first and then sailed down the east coast of the North Island stopping at Nukutaurua (Te Atihau) in Mahia. Rongomaiwahine was on the Kurahaupō waka and remained behind in Mahia. The waka then carried on to the western side of the island, namely Taranaki. The captain of the waka Kurahaupō was Te Maungaroa, and Whatonga was the tohunga (priest) on the waka. The final berthing place of the Kurahaupō waka was Whaingaroa. The iwi associated with Kurahaupō are Taranaki, Rongomaiwahine o Te Atihau, Ngati Apa, and Muaopoko.

The Takitimu waka started off up North then made its way down the east coast. The waka landed at Nukutaurua and then Ruawharo, where Ruawharo (the tohunga) remained behind to live. The Takitimu waka then carried on down to the South Island where it’s final berthing place was in Waiou. Tamatea was the captain of Takitimu waka and Ruawharo the tohunga (priest). The iwi associated with the Takitimu waka are Rongowhakaata, Ngati Kahungunu, and Ngai Tahu.

At the end of the lesson the tamariki were asked questions to see what they had absorbed from the story, then they were colouring in their own stars to put up in our classroom. Will post pictures up once they are finished.