North Taranaki’s Ratapiko School staff and pupils are inviting the community to celebrate Puanga with them.
Principal Victoria Greening-Winiata said as well as celebrating the Māori New Year, the day was about the formal blessing of the school’s recently completed pātūwatawata (stockade), waharoa (entrance) and pātaka (food shed).
“The day’s events have been purposefully prepared for the timing of Puanga. Using bamboo fresh from the local whenua was a long process and, as it neared finishing, Puanga was appropriately nearing. With this in mind, it was only a natural process that this project was to be finished and blessed in the time of Puanga and Matariki.”
She said the new structures, built around the existing maara (garden), would be blessed by Rūmatiki Timu, of Ngāti Maru.