Te Wānanga Whare Tapere o Takitimu & Kahurangi NZ Māori Dance company was founded by Tama Huata in 1983 with the support of young enthusiasts and kaumātua at that time.
Huata was instrumental in pioneering Māori performing arts education and industry in New Zealand, writing and delivering the first Certificate in Māori Performing Arts, first Diploma in Māori Performing Arts and the first Bachelor of Māori Performing Arts degree in New Zealand and internationally.
Graduates of the Māori performing arts programmes were employed by Kahurangi NZ Māori Dance company and travelled extensively as cultural ambassadors for their whānau, hapū, iwi, waka and New Zealand in schools locally, nationally and internationally in Australia, North America and Asia as part of its long-standing Theatre in Education programme, presenting Māori stories through Māori song and dance to audiences of all ages and ethnicities.
Four decades on, Te Wānanga Whare Tapere o Takitimu now has a full educational womb-to-tomb learning cycle, providing total immersion and bilingual education in te reo Māori through the kōhanga reo which was started in 1991 by Heke Huata and Matua Hook, the te kura kaupapa Māori which started in 1996, the Taikura (Ngāti Kahungunu kaumātua) programme that started in 2006 and the wharekura, which was legislated in 2015.
The founding kaupapa of Te Wānanga Whare Tapere o Takitimu is underpinned by the whakatauaki gifted by Te Amorangi Wi Te Tau Huata: “Ko Te Amorangi ki mua, ko te hāpai ō ki muri. Te tūturutanga mahi pono o te Māori mana motuhake.”
