Tōtara a taonga linking past and future
Nā Arthur Phillips
A beautiful occasion marked Spring Creek School’s recent 150th Anniversary in Wairau.
As one of the mana whenua iwi in Wairau, Ngāti Rārua signed a memorandum of understanding with the kura for the care and support of the whakatō māori (native planting) programme at Spring Creek School.
Shane opened the proceedings with karakia and explained the process. Spring Creek school pupils along with the wider community then walked around the area that had been planted until they arrived at the last area, which is almost completed. Then Shane blessed the taonga being given - a tōtara seedling - to bind the association between Spring Creek School with the people of Ngāti Rārua in the Wairau.
The eldest and youngest male students currently attending the school opened the ground for the tōtara which was place carefully into the hole by Tim, the gardener.
The students then packed earth around it and the final shovel of dirt was put around the tree by the eldest living person there on the day, who had attended the old Spring Creek School, originally on Gouland Road in the 1930’s.
Shane completed the blessing with karakia to close the formal side of opening the whakato māori programme, and gifting the mauri of the garden back into the care of Cheryl Alderlieste, the principal of Spring Creek School.
With everyone moving back to the school Shane blessed the kai and the anniversary cake which was shared out to everyone to bring them from tapu back to noa.
The people of Ngāti Rārua who have gone to Spring Creek School in the past and those that will go there in the future now have a direct link to the whenua through the tōtara as it grows.
