Te Wananga o Aotearoa Summer Graduation...

Totem pole outside the centre

Graduation Ceremony of TWOA at the Vodafone Events Centre

 Yesterday, I attended the TWOA (Te Wananga o Aotearoa) summer graduation ceremony with my family. We went there to honour one of our family member's efforts upon completing her computing course. 

This was also the same course that I completed but due to having completed quite a few different courses over the course of my being at TWOA, I thought it more important to let our family member enjoy her night with a nice dinner and supper afterwards.

One of the neat things about having the TWOA Graduation ceremony at the Vodafone Events centre in Manukau, is being able to enjoy time with family a graduation ceremony without having to go into Auckland city with it's traffic jams, often an austere environment and expensive parking. 

It also allows local families from South Auckland, the opportunity to be able to enjoy the day and to see the sights such as the very tall Totem pole outside the centre which resembles Native American and Canadian totem poles with a distinct Maori artistic flavour in the carving.

There is also the new Vero Wero: Whitewater rafting course directly behind the totem that was newly opened last year as the first man-made water course in NZ. I haven't yet been in but looking forward to taking our family there as we all love the water, whether it's swimming, or kayaking, paddling in an outrigger or just having fun. Our love for water must be through our Pacific genes.

So now it's at the end of another learning journey and the start of new learning journeys for both of us. I was asked a few days ago what me being an "educator" means. I guess for me it means as in the Maori work "ako" and Samoan word "a'o" to teach and also to learn. It's about learning so that we can pass it on to the next generation...