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Celebrating Waitangi Day at BestStart Wattle Downs
Waitangi day for us at BestStart Wattle Downs is about celebrating Te Tiriti or Waitangi, Te Reo Maori and the partnership between Maori and all cultures. But one of the principles we love the most is whanaungatanga.
Whanaungatanga is a sense of shared kinship or the relationships we make through shared experiences. At Wattle Downs, we love to make these connections through kai (food) or the sharing of kai which is very important in the Maori culture.
We had our hangi cooking as soon as the centre opened so that when our parents dropped off their tamariki, we could entice them back to the centre for lunch due to the delicious smells drifting out from our hangi cooker - and yes it worked. Our families came back to the centre and shared a delicious lunch with their tamariki. We laughed. We talked. We sang, which is what whanaungatanga is all about. Making connections and letting our whanau know that they have a sense of belonging to our centre.
It was a wonderful day of kai and sharing and we cannot wait to do it all again soon.