Te Aurere Newsletter December 2004
Kia ora,
On the weekend of December 3-5 the last wananga in this series of 15 was held in Wellington. It certainly doesn"t seem like three years ago that we started our wananga here at Aurere. This one was kind of special as we held it in conjunction with Ma Te Reo and Te Kohanga Reo to celebrate ten years of Te Kohanga Reo sponsorship of Te Aurere. We have a very special relationship with Te Kohanga Reo and greatly appreciate their continuing sponsorship of Te Aurere. This year part of their sponsorship included a brand new computer package something for which I personally am very grateful of. It was a very busy weekend which included a visit to the planetarium and some got to go to a special concert at Te Papa.
Work has recommenced on the new Waka Hourua. It is getting very close to the stage now when the two hulls will be joined together. Due to shortage of funding this waka has had to take a back seat for a while as other work was undertaken to raise some much needed cash! Both hulls have now been moved close to the shed so that all the tools are closer at hand. We will be discussing the possibility of holding wananga so that people can come and give a hand and also see how a Waka Hourua is built. I know there are people waiting to come along to the lashing but there is much more to it than that. Women will also be able to help as this is not a Waka Taua.
This has been a very difficult and sometimes sad year for me. About mid-way through the year I had to take a break from doing this letter every month. I had been doing it continuously for over four years and I just had to have a break and try to decide if I should carry on or not. Things were not helped by the death of my brother in June. However, after a lot of thought I made the decision to carry on though making things a lot simpler for myself. I do appreciate the input that comes from some of you and especially from our Hawaiian whanau as there is so much going on out there and the idea of so many waka converging on New Zealand in 2010 really has fired me up!
Perhaps here is a good place to remind you that if you change your email address and want to continue receiving this letter please let me know your new address. Also if you have a filter to stop SPAM and want to receive the letter please let your SPAM filter provider know! Please also be aware that our web site is still not up and running yet. We will let you know when it is. I"m sure it will be well worth the wait!
As this is the final letter for this year we here at Aurere hope that what ever you have got planned over the holiday period turns out well for you. Please remember that if you are drinking then do not drive and that goes for wherever in the world you may be. We"ll see you again in the New Year so in the meantime have a good holiday and take care. We have one of our Te Aurere crew in Iraq and will be giving him special thoughts and prayers this Christmas.
Noho ora mai,
Mike Harding, Hekenukumai Puhipi, Gina Harding.