Nau mai ki te Land of Voyagers

Join us as we explore the footsteps laid down by our ancestors centuries ago...

STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math forms the basis of our school system today. As the statistics show, it is not one that serves our young Māori and Pasifika students particularly well, and the irony of that is that STEM is in their DNA. The story of their ancestors - using the stars, the sun, the ocean currents and the environment around them on their voyage of discovery across the Pacific Ocean, is one that has STEM at its core... and because the islands they discovered here in Aotearoa were nothing like the islands they had left - Tahiti fits into Lake Taupo - they had to innovate simply to survive.

They may not have had the written word when Captain Cook arrived, 500 years after they did, but they had a rich history of science and innovation, Matāuranga, which they had recorded in music, in words, in carvings - in the arts.

STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. For 250 years our Māori and Pasifika students have been denied their part in this story. Let’s make this the year that we bring the stories, the footsteps of their tupuna into our classrooms.

Special thanks to

Guy and Wayne Taylor for setting us up back home in Raupunga

Andy and Liz Lowe for the access they gave us to the wonderful Cape Sanctuary Cove at Cape Kidnappers