Tina Todd, front row third from left, with former colleagues and kura whānau at a farewell function, held at Mākirikiri Marae earlier this month. Tina is moving on from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Tamaki Nui a Rua.
Tina Todd, front row third from left, with former colleagues and kura whānau at a farewell function, held at Mākirikiri Marae earlier this month. Tina is moving on from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Tamaki Nui a Rua.
Earlier this month our local kura, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Tamaki Nui a Rua, celebrated one of its longest-serving teachers.
Kui Tina Todd was there at the founding of the school more than 30 years ago. Now she is moving on, although she won’t say “retirement”, thinking of it more as a whakatā, a rest.
In the early 90s, Kui Tina had just sent the fourth of her five children from kohanga reo to a mainstream school.
“Engari mutu ana i reira, mutu ana te rima tau i reira kei whea mai anō, kare he kura anō te tuku i ēnei tamariki, kare i reira a reo rua, kare i reira a rūmaki, kare i reira ērā momo kura i aua wā.
“When they finished their five years at kohanga reo there weren’t any schools to send them to, no bilingual, no immersion, at that time there was nothing.”
There weren’t many teachers in mainstream schools able to teach te reo Māori either. So she along with other parents who had sent their kids to kohanga had a hui to decide what they could do about it. A principal at the hui suggested they set up a kura kaupapa in Dannevirke, as one had just started up in Wairarapa. Kui Tina admits at the time she didn’t know what a kura kaupapa was.
“I taua wā he ohoanga, he whakaoho o te whānau i te hiahia i te kimi i tētahi atu momo kura, ko te reo te waka haere, te waka pīkau kawe i tēnei tirohanga o te ao Māori.
“It was an awakening, awakening the whānau to the desire to find another type of school, one where the language would be the guide and would carry the views of the Māori world.”
So they started their kura in a small room in Carnegie Centre. With 16 students, no chairs and no tables, but that didn’t matter to the whānau. The environment was often the classroom, with camping trips to Akitio and Herbertville.
Sharon Paewai presents Tina Todd with taonga on behalf of the kura whānau.
Kui Tina says even at the beginning she knew it wouldn’t be a short-term thing. That has proved to be the case and after more than three decades spent at the kura she is moving on. But she is confident that her fellow teachers, including some of her former students, will continue the mahi.
“Toru ngā raukura kua hoki mai ki te kaupapa, koia ngā wawata me ngā moemoea i te timatatanga o te kura, kia tupu ake o tātou nei ākonga, tamariki, puta ki te whare takiura, whare pouako, wānanga, whai i te tohu pouako ana ka hoki mai ki te kura.
“Three of our graduates have come back to the school to teach, that was the hope from the start. That our kids would grow up, go out into the world, gain their teaching qualifications then come back to the school.”
Although she is calling it a rest, Kui Tina still has some mahi ahead of her. She is taking up a teaching position at Te Kura o Ngāruahinerangi, for a change of scenery under the protection of Taranaki maunga.
