Cultural narrative with Aidan Harrison

Today we had Aidan Harrison come and explain the cultural narrative to the class. Aidan was very engaging and related well to the students.

It was great to hear about the narrative of not just our area but also other parts of Canterbury also.

It was interesting that many students history of Christchurch and Canterbury was really lacking. It made me reflect on the fact that with such a focus on reading writing and maths and skills as apposed to knowledge many of our Tamariki do not know their history/history of where they live.

I found it really interesting to learn about Te Raparoha's son and the Christian connection. I knew a bit about Te Raparoha and what he did but never had any idea about his son and the influence of the church on his whanau.

I really liked the connection Aidan made with why we learn about the the cultural narrative and how he linked it to having a place to stand and your Christian faith.

It encouraged me to really work on my use of Maori this year and make it a more natural part of my teaching.