Kayaking Adventures

8th Dec 2023

Thanks to the Sport Tasman Tu Manawa Fund, we were able to take two groups of 6 young people pedal kayaking with Seal Kayaks. Not only were these young people able to experience something new but they also got to learn about our moana and the sea creatures that reside in it. Everyone had such a good time splashing and jumping off the kayaks for a swim.

Celebrating Education!

5th Dec 2023

Te Hā o Mātauranga held their end of year celebration on 4th December for their Te Kura ākonga (students). The ākonga were acknowledged for their strengths, their growth over the year and for the hard work that has led to academic success.

The night was great fun, with the students contributing to the evenings activities. Keepa Timms cooked up a storm with Mark Paterson and fed the 40 or so attendees a delicious meal they prepared during the day. Kara Smith mc'd the night, with confidence and flair, leading the crowd in activities as well as acknowledging the Te Hā staff. Grace Jellyman and Allie McLaren led the evenings karakia and Kyson Manawatu sung with a voice like velvet, entertaining the crowd with a soulful rendition of Elvis Presley's In the Ghetto.

A place like Te Hā o Mātauranga relies on support from community and some of those were thanked during the night such as James Bishop from New World supermarket and Paul Threadgill who has volunteered all year. An added bonus was a speech from the Mayor who also vacuumed the Upper Room expertly to help with the clean-up.

Mother-4-Mother Breastfeeding Supporters

4th Dec 2023

Te Hā o Mātauranga and REAP Marlborough were approached to support the local midwife and Plunket to run a Breastfeeding Peer Support class.

Sometimes the best advice for breastfeeding mothers comes from other mothers with breastfeeding experience. The Mother-4-Mother Breastfeeding Peer Support Programme is a Canterbury-wide service. Trained peer supporters attend breastfeeding support groups and provide one-to-one help when needed.

A Mother-4-Mother supporter can help you by:

providing breastfeeding information during your pregnancy
helping you to find solutions to challenges via telephone, txt, email and face to face
assisting you join a breastfeeding group in your area, so that you can meet other mothers
referring you to health professionals if required, e.g. lactation consultants

We were thrilled to be involved in the delivery of this peer support / peer counsellors programme. Having local wahine able to connect with mums who are new to breastfeeding, to support them as needed, is massive for our community.

YCD pool party

27th Nov 2023

The sun came out for our Lateral youth/YCD pool party!! With free entry, free sausage sizzle, fades and braids, a DJ and heaps of fun in the pool!! Around 150 people came along on the day and joined in.

Thanks Youth & Cultural Development and Kaikoura Aquatic Centre for the awesome afternoon in the sun! Thanks to the funders too - Ministry of Youth Development - New Zealand and Sport Tasman. Most of all - thanks to everyone who came along to make it a stunning arvo!

Successfully Teaching Adults

13th Nov 2023

We were very lucky to have Jennifer Leahy supported by Tai from ACE Aotearoa (Adult and Community Education) come to Kaikōura to deliver a one day workshop on Successfully Teaching Adults. The course aims were for participants to:

understand key ideas about teaching adults
include a range of adult teaching skills in their course selections
create adult teaching sessions that appeal to all learners
improve teaching practices resulting in an improvement in ACE learner outcomes

This opportunity was intended to inspire and upskill people who work with adults in our community - and it certainly did! Jennifer and Tai provided a professional presentation with genuine connection and humour. Interweaving the skills and tips throughout the day, participants did a little theory learning, a little acting, a little competing and gained a lot of really usable knowledge.

If you get the chance to attend one of these workshops in the future, we highly recommend taking up the opportunity!

Ākonga Expressions

4th Nov 2023

Inspired by the amazing artworks of one of our ākonga, Kyson Manawatu, we contracted Geoff Noble to work with our ākonga over term 3 to produce a variety of different artworks. These ranged from pencil drawings, to spray paint, custom painted shoes and guitar, water colour paintings and photographs.

We are super proud of our Te Hā o Mātauranga ākonga and their exhibition at the Mayfair. We invite you to go along (check out when the movies are playing for open times) and view the very cool art work on display for the next few weeks.

A huge thank you to Geoff Noble, who supported with tips, techniques and inspiration! Thanks as well to Kaikōura Creative Communities, and The Ministry of Youth Development who supported this event with funding and to the Mayfair Theatre for the venue.

And to our talented artists - well done, the rate the art works are selling is a testament to your talent! And to Kara Smith, great work on organising our opening event on Friday!

Rafting The Mighty Waiau Toa!

27th Oct 2023

A group of 7 young people took up the challenge of rafting the mightly Waiau Toa/Clarence River recently - supported by 2 of our staff and 3 raft guides from Clarence River Rafting.

Highlights of the trip included the helicopter trip into the valley, a 3 hour water fight on the river, learning about the river, the changes that happened in the 2016 earthquake, different rock types, te reo names and what they mean, the amazing kai and the group bonding and relationship building.

We stayed in tents, learnt how to build and use a long drop, cooked over campfires and somehow survived without phones and internet for 3 whole days!! It was an amazing experience, along with the challenge of a wild nor-west wind adding to the adventure!

We are incredibly grateful to Clarence River Rafting for their care, experience and manaakitanga, and to Sport Tasman's Tu Manawa fund for helping make this opportunity possible.

Rata Foundation support for Te Hā o Mātauranga

15th Sep 2023

One of our funders, Rata Foundation, have put together this story and video about Te Hā o Mātauranga. They actually filmed this in 2021, however the pulling together of the video was pushed back with other things happening in the world at the time.

Rata support us by contributing to the operational costs of Te Hā - you can't have people working without having the background bits for them! Rata's support goes towards the costs of our hub (rent, power, phone, insurance etc), and the costs of employing a Coordinator to look after the other staff. We are deeply grateful to Rata for their ongoing support!