Te Wananga o Ngati Rauhoto

A series of weekend wananga relating to identity of Ngati Rauhoto run by Geoff Rameka. So far four of the nine wananga have been held and attended by between 40 and 60 hapu members each time.

Te Wananga o Ngati Rauhoto  are weekend wananga courses covering aspects of learning applicable to the identity of Ngati Rauhoto.  The residential course focussing on Whakapapa, Rautoto, Tuwharetoa, significant sites, Hoe Waka, Man rakau & Man patu, haka, waita, moteatea, creative stories, te Tikanga o te marae, powhiri, karanga & more.

The fruits of the wananga have been noticed already with whanau face to face with Kaumatua sharing experiences and Whakapapa. Geoff reports that whanau are standing to speak and not being afraid to use what little language they know.

Kaumatua are  teaching aspects of Tikanga that they believe is trivial but very important and a general sense of pride and mana was  being expressed as they all come to realise their roots and what these mean as a whole.

Ngati Rauhoto was at the crossroads in terms of identity and ability to function affectively as a contributing hapu of Ngati Tuwharetoa.

'Our paepae is very thin, our history known only by a handful and our language only used by the fortunate few. Our mana is at stake. These wananga provide us with an opportunity to address these issues and move forward with pride and dignity. To ignore them would be fatal; especially for our young.'

'He tangata i akona ki te kianga, tunga ki te marae, tau ana!'
(A person trained at home will stand on the marae with dignity)'

The wananga are due to be completed in April next year.

Whanau carry out onland training before taking the waka out on the lake during the wananga.

Wananga Kaupapa was to hikoi Tauhara to see what Ngatoroirangi saw when he first ventured to Taupo.		Wananga guest speaker Te Kanawa Pitiroi giving a  historical account of Ngatoroirangi's journey to Aotearoa and an explanation of the many place names in our Tuwharetoa history at the most recent wananga.