Pāhake Christmas function at Okurukuru

The Pāhake Christmas function was a wonderful occasion held at a’ mystery location,’ the Okurukuru Winery & Bistro, on the 11th December 2020.

All Taranaki Iwi pāhake registered members aged 60 years and over were invited to come along. Unlike our previous pāhake christmas functions where the location was already known, we decided to keep the location for this event a surprise. Our pāhake were transported by

Taiohi Wānanga

bus from Waitara and Ōpunakē. On arrival they were overwhelmed with joy and excitement, and were greeted by our board of trustees and kaimahi. The sweet melodies of Leslie and Hurimoana Haami, of the iconic band ‘Jade’ also greeted our pāhake as they made their way to the restaurant.

Once again this kaupapa was a wonderful occasion for our treasured pāhake to come together and celebrate following a year of disruption due to Covid-19.

The joy and aroha in the room was an amazing demonstration of whakawhānaungatanga and underscored the importance and value of our pāhake coming together to reminisce and enjoy each other’s company.

Pua Te Ata Series: “Developing an Iwi eco-system of content creators”

Taranaki Iwi, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Maru and Te Atiawa Iwi joined forces to bring together uri, particularly taiohi who naturally gravitate towards strategic communications, visual storytelling and writing. The series of Creative Communication webinars spanning a two-month period brought together facilitators of Taranaki whakapapa to present in their specialist fields including film, marketing, news media, Information Technology

(IT), visual art & technology and storytelling making it relatable to ‘te ao Māori.

Taiohi from as far as Germany and Australia were able to connect into the seven webinar series to listen, learn and share their own stories, experiences and feedback on each kaupapa presented. Many of the taiohi were already working in these particular spaces including Radio Announcers, Editors, Multimedia, and Sound and Vision.