Challenging welcome to third-formers

Press, 11 February 1986, Page 8

Challenging welcome to third-formers

Pupu skirts and Maori challenges took over from textbooks and pens at Aranui High School yesterday when a powhiri to welcome the new third form was held. About 340 new third form pupils were welcomed on to the school’s “marae” by teachers and other students, led by the school’s Maori culture group.

A karanga or welcoming call started the ceremony, as the third form manuhiri or “visitors” waited in a big group away from the marae area. Then a Maori culture group leader, Martin Simeon, of Form 6, “challenged” the group to find out whether its intentions were peaceful. The powhiri continued with the principal, Mr John Grigor, welcoming the third formers into the school with a short speech in Maori, and then the culture group sang a waiata or song. Waiata are sung after most Maori speeches. Mr Tom Matenga, a teacher, replied for the

third form group, and the school’s new deputy principal, Mr Rex Gibson, from Fairfield, also thanked the school for its welcome. As with all Maori welcomes, it ended with each member of the Maori culture group saluting each new third former with a hongi, or “Maori kiss” of greeting. The hongi is a salute to another’s life breath and the life it sustains, and is done by gently touching noses.

The associate principal, Mr lan MacDonald, said the school had wanted to give its third form a traditional Maori welcome.

It was also a good practical example of Taha Maori, the education programme to make students aware of all aspects of Maori life, he said. Aranui High School had one of the largest percentages of Maori and Pacific Island pupils in Christchurch, about 10 per cent being Polynesian. The school’s Maori culture group had been going

for some years, but pupils had become more enthusiastic during the last three years.

Parents of pupils in the Maori club helped the school make traditional Maori clothing and gave it strong support for the Taha Maori programme, Mr MacDonald said.