June 17, 2021
Wikitoria hostel reopened for Maori tertiary students
A new beginning for a whare which was home away from home for generations of Māori schoolgirls.
Queen Victoria School in Parnell closed 20 years ago, and its buildings have been rented out in the intervening years.
Karleen Everitt, the deputy chair of the St Stephens Queen Victoria Trust Board, says the board has been working with old girls’ group Te Kāhui o Wikitoria and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, and their efforts came together at a ceremony on Sunday to mark 120 years since the school’s foundation stone was laid.
"We also rededicated the Wikitōria Hostel which will be for young Māori and Pacific Island women who are coming into Tāmaki to study at tertiary level and that will be a wonderful place to manaaki then as they begin and engage in their journey through tertiary studies," she says.
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