The stars are aligning for a festive Matariki celebration at Te Kura o Mangateretere on Friday. 

The small bilingual school, located halfway between Hastings and Napier, is staging an open day which will include an exhibition of art by students and whānau and, in the evening, a four-course dinner featuring locally harvested produce and wine donated by a Hawke’s Bay winery.

And, in the Matariki spirit of inclusiveness, the events are open to the wider community.

The free art exhibition and Wearable Art Design Awards will include raranga, taught at the 48-student school by principal Mona Stewart. She learnt the traditional art of weaving harakeke from the great-great-grandmother Peho Kainga, of two girls Dominque and Maia Purcell, who both attend the kura.

Mona says she is now passing that knowledge down to the younger generation.

“At Matariki we honour those who have gone before us in celebrating the skills passed on from one generation to the next,” she says.

Mona hopes students will have developed their design and plaiting skills to be able to take part in the Edible Fashion Awards later this year.

If they learn to dream and put their dreams into practice, she says, “the world is their oyster. As they dream, the possibilities for their own lives will grow and expand positively.”

Works displayed at the kura Matariki exhibition will be for sale, with proceeds going directly to the artists. The students are raising funds for their financial literacy programme. Mona says “it’s about
giving them practical experiences with ways to generate funds from nothing. They are then taught how to monitor the funds once they place into their own accounts”. Accountability and
transparency is essential skills they need today.

The dinner, which will be prepared by volunteers and includes wine donated by Clearview Estate, is being held as a school fundraiser, most notably to purchase a sound system so student productions
can be staged in the kura hall.

Mona says there were few school resources when she came out of retirement four years ago to take up the position of principal. Since then, resources have been building up to meet the needs of a roll
that has grown to 48 students from Years 1 through to 9 although she says “resources are still scarce”.

The exhibition will be open on Monday and into the weekend. Tickets for the July 2nd dinner, starting at 6pm and costing $40 per head, are available by phoning the school on (06) 878 5284 or
emailing mangateretere@airnet.net.nz.

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