Ko Te Whāriki te mokopuna. Ko te mokopuna Te Whāriki.
Te Whāriki is the child. The child is Te Whāriki

By Carol Marks, 5 October 2020

I love this photo of my mokopuna Sophia meeting her wee brother Nikau – Tarewa for the first time. Her emotions and feelings are so obvious just as it is for family members in all whanau as they interact with their loved ones. Dame Tilly Reedy reminds us that central to the learning as you step into an early childhood centre is the Mokopuna. This is such an important concept to Maori and as we as kaiako recognise all children as our mokopuna we recognise the importance of relationship in deep and meaningful ways that make a difference to children’s learning.

This is one of the important messages from Te Tiriti, recognising the mokopuna from every walk of life and nationality, to have their reo and their culture acknowledged. This is central to Te Whāriki.

In Dame Tilly’s words – Mana Atua, my sense of godliness that neither you or anyone else can trample, Mana Tangata, Who am I? Recognise me.

Mana Reo – Te Whāriki allows everyone to have their own reo, Mana Whenua- turangawaewae, this makes me who I am and where I stand, the importance of the land, Mana Aotearoa – to care for the land.

These wise words can help us to weave what is meaningful to whanau within our curriculum, underpinned by the values within Te Ao Maori.

Here is Dame Tilly’s korero:

Te Whāriki reminds us that weaving our whāriki takes time, skill and knowledge and a child is a whāriki as well ‘work in progress’. As we work in our teams with tamariki and whanau we will be questioning practice and understanding what our practices may be doing for tinana (body), hinengaro (mind), wairua (spirit) and whatumanawa (emotion). p, 9