Nga Mahi o Nga Tupuna … THE WORK OF OUR FOREFATHERS by Rora Paki Mrs Te Kanawa teaching Te Ropa Hynes how to make a piupiu. (Desgranges.) Greetings! Greetings from Oparure!!! Let us hear a story that shows a revival of the old community spirit. It All Began when our youthful and versatile schoolteacher, together with his bride, took over our school of sixty-odd Maori children and two Europeans. Filted with amazement at the lack of Maoti culture among his pupils, he immediately began to ply his school committee with such questions as: ‘Could you find someone who would volunteer to come to the school once a month to teach the correct pronunciation of Maori place-names? ‘Could you find someone who would volunteer to teach the boys haka - and the girls poi?’ ‘Could you find a woman who would volunteer to come to school and teach the care and cutting of flax, and the Maori Arts?’ Finally, the children were all happily engaged in learning haka, poi, and action songs, their 'teachers' often going out of their way to get to the school for these short periods of practice. Our energetic schoolteacher, far from being satisfied, then proceeded to sponsor a ‘Youth Club’ run by a committee of our high school children. He has a Junior Red Cross class, which meets with the District Health Nurse once a week, and a singing class, where, for half an hour, the children learn to harmonise. The senior classes are taught Maori Arts and Crafts for an hour every week by a young mother with seven children of her own, and it is quite common for her to arrive at school with Junior in the pram, and a bundle of flax on top; but that is another story. The children have now taken part in two New Year carnivals, performing on suitably decorated floats, and at a Queen Carnival, Study in Patience; Mrs Meri Iki teaching her pupils. (Desgranges.)