Spent 3 days last week at Te Awamutu and had a neat time with the team of 7 of us from Auckland (pictured here with me at the right.)
We stayed at Otawhao Marae which was on Te Awamutu College grounds. I'd recommend to any NZer that if you haven't stayed overnight on a Marae, then you may have missed out on a very unique and interesting experience.
I'd stayed on Marae before overnight, but this was interesting in that we were explained about the different carvings and the tukutuku patterns and was even given a book about the history of the Marae.
I think the highlight of the time was learning about the history of where Te Wananga o Aotearoa started and the insurmountable obstacles that they had to overcome to now being where it is as the largest indigenous tertiary institute in the world being that it has many campuses and satellite sites all over NZ.
It also helped me to reflect on myself and what it would mean to leave a contribution of consequence in that it would be a legacy that I would leave behind but would continue. I think to me that that would be in my family but also in my writing in hoping that there would be some important messages that need to be continued...
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