118 | New life for historic schoolhouse Arowhenua Maori School’s original schoolhouse, built in 1895, has been saved and is being restored, making way for the special character school to expand to include Year 9 to Year 13 pupils. Arowhenua Maori School: Timaru Construction T T Emma Bailey “In the late 1960s, they disestablished a lot of what were then called native schools, but the community fought to keep the school, so they changed it to Arowhenua Maori School instead of native.” COMMUNITY Arowhenua Maori School’s original schoolhouse, built in 1895, has been saved and is being restored, making way for the special character school to expand to include Year 9 to Year 13 pupils. Named Tarahaoa, it is only one of two schoolhouses left in the South Island that were used for native school purposes, and the only one given a Maori name. Tarahaoa has been relocated back to its original site. The restoration project is jointly funded by the board and the Ministry of Education, says Arowhenua Maori School Tumuaki (principal) Bronwyn Te Koeti (Ngai Tahu). “The Ministry is doing its part making sure it’s structurally sound and putting on a new roof, which is being carried out by Timaru Construction. “We are fundraising to build an annex, which will include a toilet and a kitchenette, and then painting the interior and the final fit- out.” It is a project Bronwyn is very passionate about. “It’s been relocated close to where it originally was after it was moved to the back of the school to make way for new buildings. “In the late 1960s, they disestablished a lot of what were then called native schools, but the community fought to keep the school, so they changed it to Arowhenua Maori School instead of native.” Tarahaoa is scheduled to be listed as a category A heritage site in the Timaru District Council district plan. Six generations of Arowhenua’s tamariki have passed through Tarahaoa, and it is now the oldest existing building in the infrastructural matrix of the pa. The marae was built in 1905, and the church was built in 1931. The original wharenui was lost to fire in 1902, and the 1860s’ church lost to decay in the 1930s. The schoolhouse was named Tarahaoa in May 1895 by Ngai Tahu leader Rawiri Te Maire. The school has a current roll of 36 and is bilingual. Bronwyn is working towards getting the school recognised as a special character school, so it can expand from Year 0 to Year 8, to include Year 9 to Year 13 in 2028. PO Box 166, Timaru 7910 | Phone 03 684 8440 Proud to be associated with Aorangi Homes menzies.group@xtra.co.nz 0800 102 324 Preserving the Past. Building The Future. 16 Redruth Street, Timaru T: 03 684 7053 E: admin@timaruconstruction.co.nz W: www.timaruconstruction.co.nz “That is what our community want, especially as it is bilingual. Tarahaoa will give us space to expand.” There has been a lot of interest in the project, Bronwyn says. “We have worked with the marae and the kaumatua and kept everyone up to date with the progress.” The schoolhouse has been saved from demolition twice now. In the 1950s, the Canterbury Education Board funded the construction of a larger school building. The Arowhenua community fought for the retention of Tarahaoa, and it was relocated to the south-west corner of the school, where it remained in use. After initially agreeing to restore and relocate the building back to its original site in 2024, the Ministry of Education indicated they intended to demolish it. Thankfully, after the school community rallied, the ministry agreed to relocate it and make it weatherproof and re-roof it. It was then up to the school community to fund the new annex, which will include a kitchenette and accessible bathrooms. They are now busy fundraising for this, on top of the hundreds of volunteer hours it has taken to get to this stage.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=