Te Ahu Ahu

Te Ao Hou, March 1962, Page 21

Te Ahu Ahu After this we continued to Te Ahu Ahu, where we met Mr York, the District Officer at the Maori Affairs Department in Kaikohe. There was an attendance of twenty-eight people, including representatives from the Maunganui Maori Women's Welfare League. There were many elders present, including the late Mr H. Leaf, Mr W. Marino the chairman of the Eastern Kaikohe Tribal Executive, and Mr N. Arihana. Mr and Mrs N. Anderson, the local headmaster and teacher, were also present. It was following the lecture that Mr Arihana made the following statement in an eloquent speech … ‘Always the Pakeha is ahead of us; always he can get the good jobs; this is not race discrimination, but lack of education. Sixty years we have education in this country for Maori people, and still the pakeha has to come and tell us what to do’. The Te Ahu Ahu play centre committee has since been elected, and has raised funds to the extent of £60. And so our trip was over. I hope that I left some good impression behind, because for myself, I came away greatly enriched. In the following month we took our demonstration session to Oruawharo, this time south of Whangarei. The Onerahi Play Centre at Whangarei lent us equipment. It was piled on to a truck and we set off early in the morning, complete with qualified supervisors and experienced mother helpers. We stayed at Oruawharo the whole day. Forty children played with our equipment, and Maori mothers and fathers joined in with their children. The headmaster of the local school, Mr Abbot, brought some of his school children along, and to watch them enjoying the delight of finger painting, brush painting, clay, and family play was all the thanks we needed for our hard work. As well as this, a day school was arranged at Okaihau. Mr A. Gray, the Director of Supervisor Training of the Auckland Play Centre Association, was the lecturer, and it was good to see a mixed audience of Maori and Pakeha. There were representatives from Kaitaia. Kaikohe, Te Ahu Ahu, Maungamuka, Keri Keri and Moerewa. The day was most useful, full of good discussion; and how pleased I was to see some familiar faces from my Northland tour. And now we see them going from strength to strength, and it will not be long before the first play centre will be established by Maori parents supported by their community.