July 05, 2024
Warmth and aroha in new home for Manurewa kura
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The principal of Te Wharekura o Manurewa says its new home is more than a building.
Today’s dawn opening for the $47 million complex next to the school for the blind at Homai drew hundreds of people from around the motu in what Mahia Nathan says was a celebration of being Māori.
He says the seeds were sown in 1999, when whanau met to discuss how their children could continue in Maori medium education without having to leave the south Auckland suburb.
It has long outgrown the original prefabs behind Manurewa Marae, but it’s taken more then a decade – and a lot of help from successive education ministers – to get a modern building up for the job.
“It was pretty cold this morning outside when we were hanging around the gate and suddenly the karakia was pulling everyone in and we hit the doors and boom, you could see the warmth. It felt like we were home and people just relaxed,” Mr Nathan says.
The complex includes a kohanga reo and kura kaupapa, and there’s room for a wananga later on.