Rere ana te puna wai o Wharemauku
Te maringi iho ana i te rangi.
Rere ana te wairua tō te tangata, e oho mai runga.
Ti ara ra!
Ti ara ra!
Ti. Ti. Ti Hā!

Nau mai, haere mai – come and be part of this very special journey.

Weaving together the voices of the Wharemauku, with a team of haukainga taiao practitioners, environmental educators and the community, AWE: te mauri o Wharemauku is a series of four seasonal workshops that provide a unique curriculum experience for educators within the Kapiti rohe.

Ngahuru
Ōrongonui
Tuesday 14th April 2026

Te Hokinga ki te Wharemauku

The final seasonal workshop in a series of four for kaiako in the Kāpiti rohe. In this workshop we return to where we began.

Limited spots, register now!

We will:

Reconnect with the Wharemauku as a living ancestor
Deepen understanding of kaitiakitanga as a lived responsibility,
Reflect on the human expression of ātua
Trace the seasonal story and return to the maramataka as guide
Engage in an action learning cycle
Anchor learning through embodied relationship with place

Each of the four workshops centres the messages and stories of the Wharemauku river and haukainga.

Through centring this mātauranga, we are all able to access and connect with values from a worldview that remembers what it is to relate to te taiao with love, reverence and humility, values that are essential for our collective future.

Each workshop explores a different state of mauri — from pristine wellness to the impacts of colonisation and climate change — weaving pūrākau, tikanga, science, and practical action into an immersive learning experience.

The project equips educators with rich local knowledge, culturally grounded teaching tools, and a renewed sense of environmental responsibility.

Awe (pronounced ah-we)

te reo rangatira

containing the essence of your personal wairua
strength, power and influence
the white feathers of the toroa (albatross)

Awe (pronounced oar)

te reo Pākehā

wonderment, inspiration, reverence, honour, love

About Us

Through Awe: te mauri o Wharemauku, we aim to:

Honour and embed mana whenua knowledge and leadership in local place based education
Foster intergenerational connection and responsibility to te taiao
Support the wellbeing of the Wharemauku awa and all who depend on them
Provide practical tools and curriculum-linked resources for schools
Inspire community-wide awareness and action through educators

Takurua

The first seasonal workshop took place in Takurua on Ohua, Te Tahi o Pipiri, Thursday 26 June with 23 kaiako and haukainga practitioners from across the rohe.

This workshop was designed to connect our living selves with the living stories of te Wharemauku, a collective activation of mauri in relation to this sacred waterway.

Curriculum links were made across Te Ao Tangata I Social Sciences (inc. Aotearoa NZ Histories), Science and Health and PE.

Watch the highlight video from the day – a beautiful time of connection, presence and attunement to the mauri of the Wharemauku.

We developed together :

Reverence for indigenous ways of knowing
Experience of awe
Attunement to the more than human world
Feeling our own agency in system/context
Belief in our own embodied expertise
Practices to approach this with your learners
Practical tools to leave with, linked to the NZC

The workshop was completed with each participant receiving a Maramataka and a zine filled with activities and curriculum links.

Koanga

The second seasonal workshop took place in Koanga on Tangaroa-ā-mua, Te Wha o Mahuru, Tuesday 16 September with 20 kaiako and haukainga practitioners from across the rohe.

This workshop sought to explore the impact of colonisation on te Wharemauku from the lens of those who whakapapa to this area and supported Tangata Tiriti to better understand this through immersive and experiential activities..

Curriculum links were made across Te Ao Tangata I Social Sciences (inc. Aotearoa NZ Histories), Visual Arts, English and Health and PE.

The intentions of the workshop, were to:

Develop strategies for holding cultural and emotional safety in conversations and creative processes

Analyse local histories of the waterway, naming both dominant colonial narratives and suppressed Indigenous ones.

Integrate arts and mātauranga Māori approaches into environmental education, emphasising relationality, reciprocity, and respect to process grief, honour resilience, and imagine alternative futures for te Wharemauku.

Commit to concrete next steps in our practice that strengthen relationships with te taiao, mana whenua, and disrupt patterns of supremacy.

Raumati

The third workshop took place on
Turu, te ono o Whiringa-ā-Rāngi
Thursday 6 November, 9:30-4:30pm at Kia Aio te Noho, Kapiti Marae + surrounds

We continued into the warming seasons and down the awa, ki uta ki tai, on our third seasonal workshop, we:

connected to Parihaka Mai Ai values as a guide for our relationship to the Wharemauku Stream, local ecosystems, and community narratives.
explored how mātauranga Māori is providing a ara rongoā – a healing pathway, for the freshwater ecologies of the awa.
provided inspiration and guidance for kaiako around next steps and learning opportunities in the classroom.

Kaiako, haukainga, hāpori and ākonga grew their understanding of the wisdom of this river, developed local knowledge and added practical tools to their learning kete, all linked to the NZC.