This article was first published in English and has been republished in te reo Māori.
E huri ana tētahi kura kauhoe, e rumakina ana ki te reo Māori, i te mātauranga haumaru wai kia whakaakona ai te kauhoe me te haumaru wai mā te tirohanga Māori.
Ka whakaakona katoatia e Te Whare Kauhoe, e noho nei i Swimtastic i Glen Innes, ngā akoranga ki te reo Māori, ka kōtuia atu hoki ngā tikanga me ngā mātauranga Māori ki te marautanga, me te mōhio ehara noa iho te wai i te ‘wai’ noa iho, engari he mauri tōna.
“We teach through our way of life,” says Founder Keitiria McColl.
Ko tana whakamārama mai, kāore e tino tau ana ngā akoranga kauhoe aunoa ki te hunga ako Māori.
“As Māori, we have a natural connection to the wai,” she says.
“We’re teaching them to rukuhia ki te kina, pērā i tana pāpā. We’re not sculling and treading water, we’re doing waewae takahia. We’re not doing streamlines, we’re doing whakatū tō taiaha.”
I tīmata te whai wāhi a McColl ki ngā whakataetae kauhoe nōna ka 9 tau te pakeke, ā, mutu atu ana mahi hākinakina ka 14 ana ia. Nō ngā tau e whā ki muri noa iho nei ia ka hoki ki te puna kauhoe, me tana moemoeā kia eke ai ia ki Ngā Taumāhekeheke o te Ao.
“At the end of that year, I find out that I have cancer in my throat.”
Ko te noho hei kaiwhakaako tētahi o ngā ara e whai pānga tonu ai au ki te kauhoe. Nō reira mai a Te Whare Kauhoe, kua whānui kē atu nei i te whakaako noa i ngā pūkenga whāiti i te puna kauhoe.
Ngā tatauranga toromi i Aotearoa
E ai ki a Water Safety New Zealand, e 31 ōrau o ngā matenga ā-toromi i Aotearoa nei he Māori i te tau 2022.
“I’m just trying to lower our drowning statistics. We teach swimming skills, and then we teach water survival on top of it.”
Ko tāna, nā te utu, nā ngā herenga tomo, me te korenga o ngā waka, ka āraia tā ngā tini whānau whai wāhi atu ki ngā akoranga kauhoe taketake - me te aha, ka ngoikore iho te māia i te wai, ka nui ake hoki ngā pāpātanga toromi.
“I just think that swimming is expensive. We just don’t have the availability, I think, to take our tamariki to the pool because there are other sports that are a priority.”
E whai ana a Te Whare Kauhoe, e $160 nei te utu ki ia tamaiti i ia wāhanga, kia māmā te utu o ngā akoranga, me te whakarite waka kawekawe i ngā tauira.
Ki tā te kaiako kauhoe ā-motu me te kaiwhakahaere o Swimtastic, ki tā Mark Bone, he tuatahitanga tēnei kaupapa i ana tau katoa i te hākinakina.
“I think it’s a wonderful initiative and one that we’ve really embraced.”
“The culture loves water. Are they safe in water? No. But they love water, and they love what water does and what it represents and what it means. [But] it doesn’t always mean you’re safe in water.”
I whakamātauhia e Te Whare Kauhoe te kaupapa ki tō Te Puna Reo ā-rohe taha, me ngā tamariki o te kura tuatahi o Ōrākei. Ki tā McColl, ko te pae tawhiti kia horapa te kaupapa puta noa i Tāmaki Makaurau, me te motu katoa ā tōna wā.
“Right now, my main focus is getting our rangatahi and tamariki in, and then moving into that pakeke space, because that seems to be a red zone at the moment too.”
“I think by having the approach of likening it to our space, they’re more likely to learn from it and to keep coming back.”
Translations done by Hona Black.
