Ms Quick & Ms Seyb get to join the hāngi fun
On Friday 19 March, Ms Seyb and I got to leave school for most of the morning and join the learning and fun down at the Whare Manaaki. I had heard about the Whare Manaaki from Eli Maiava and on Facebook, but this was my first visit.
We arrived at Whare Manaaki just before interval, and found happy students everywhere! Eli welcomed us and explained that there was a separate meeting about to start, that we would need to be mindful in terms of noise, and that we were all welcome to share their kai at lunchtime. How lucky were we!
I took my time looking around the space, both inside and out. It was nice to see Trish and Jake again, as I’d had the pleasure of teaching LeBron last year. Jake and John were working hard prepping the meat when I first walked in. Out in the grassy space beside Whare Manaaki, a group of men and students were watching the fire for the hāngi. I got to meet Isy’s Dad, Fale, and Messiah’s Dad, Jax. I also got to enjoy the sunshine and to admire the super thick pieces of glass that Sapati and others found when they were digging the pit.
Inside, Matua Joe was getting started on the fried bread, ably assisted by Isy, Autumn, Tiana and Hayley. I love fried bread! There isn’t a purpose built kitchen in this space, which was once an architect’s offices, but I was impressed by how everyone was making it work, taking buckets and cloths down from the sink upstairs, and using the table as a kitchen bench. The table was big enough to make and cut up a lot of pieces of dough for fried bread at once.
At midday, we shared kai with members of the community who were there for a meeting. Our students had prepared the kai, and everyone was happy and enjoyed the beautiful food. I like how the space brings lots of people together who might not otherwise see each other, especially people of different ages.
When it was time to put the food down, I think I was inside and missed it, but I did get to watch the boys separate out the coals and metal from the dirt, and then shovel the dirt on the corners of the wet cloth and then over the top. Jax explained to us how to watch for steam and to keep piling dirt on as needed.
Our morning went really fast! Soon it was time to say thank you and make our way back to school. We sang a waiata to our hosts and left knowing that some delicious food was going to be ready for us later in the day. We stopped at the dairy on the way back to school, and arrived just as lunchtime was starting. Thank you to our Ngā Here Kahikatea students and whanau, and to Whare Manaaki for giving me a morning of learning outside of the classroom that I will remember for a long time.
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