Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana opened the first Rātana school on March 30, 1924. One hundred years later the morehu have been celebrating their school’s centennial.
Te Wharekura Mōrehu trust board chair Kamaka Manuel said the reason for the centennial event was to celebrate “but also to reflect on the past for our school and also to remember those past students who have gone from us, leaving behind the succession of children we have here today”.
This year the Rātana faith also celebrated 100 years of the petition, signed by more than 20,000 people, which called for the Crown to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and demanded redress for land confiscations.
The school has unveiled a new “archway”, a new pathway into the future based on the words left by the Māngai but also another exciting kaupapa is emerging in the next 100 years.
“Our future vision is to establish a new secondary school system here at our school, allowing us to navigate and look after our own children right from primary and later into secondary, sheltering them in our own system and understanding of the Ratana Church all the way until they reach their adult lives, standing staunch as morehu and as descendants who attended Whare Kura Morehu O Ratana,” Manuel said.