Maori Place Names - 81

Torere, East Cape

Eastland, North Island

June 2009, Ajr

Living Language

Torere, East Cape. May 2009 Ajr.

One of my favourite discoveries on my East Cape travels was beautiful little Torere School, located at the top of the hill overlooking a sweeping horseshoe bay. Quite apart from its magnificent carved gateway (which I wrote about here some weeks ago; click on Torere School in the label line below), there was a lovely atmosphere about the place. The grounds were immaculate and every surface seemed to be decorated. I wandered into the school grounds (it was a weekend so no one was about), to have a closer look hoping the folks in the nearby cluster of houses wouldn't think me suspicious. I was thrilled to see whole classrooms filled with evidence of thriving bilingualism - more te Reo than English in fact - or so it seemed from my quick peek. Lovely. I'd love to visit again when school is in.

A School on a Hill

Torere, East Cape, North Island. May 2009. Ajr
This is Te Kura o Torere – the gorgeous little Torere School, which falls within the Opotiki district on East Cape. I discovered it recently during my East Cape travels, 24 kilometres from Opotiki. I had driven through the little settlement of Torere and on, up the hill and there it was, right on the brow. You could hardly miss its magnificent carvings of course. The elaborately carved Whakairo Gateway is a triumph. I wondered at the time, what the school kids must think each day as they pass underneath it on their way to lessons. In the nature of childhood I guess, they possibly take it for granted as just one more thing in their everyday landscape. I wandered into the school grounds (it was a weekend and ‘no one was home) and peeped into one or two of the classrooms – richly decorated places filled with drawing and the colourful trappings of a bilingual environment.

Torere, East Cape, North Island. May 2009. Ajr
Torere is the home to the Ngai Tai iwi, one of the Bay of Plenty’s smallest – descended from Hoturoa’s daughter, Torere, who came ashore from the Tainui canoe, as it journeyed along the coast. The 2006 census counted just 342 Maori claiming Ngaitai ancestry, 201 of them living in the Auckland area and just 60 in the Bay of Plenty. www.torerekura.schoolzone.net.nz