Wai Puna and Learning Programmes for Tamariki

The Wai Puna water safety framework developed and explained by Dr Chanel Phillips, is a framework that interweaves core concepts of whakapapa, mātauranga and tikanga, and are essential components in understanding and establishing beliefs and attitudes towards wai (Phillips: 2018, p13).

From the beginning of time, Māori have been intimately connected to wai (water). As such, and more specifically in relation to the development of resources for Kura Kaupapa  it is important to ensure, that the interconnectedness of whakapapa, mātauranga (ā-iwi) and tikanga (ā-iwi) reflect how resources are developed and or reversioned.

By placing a Te Aho Matua lens over the Wai Puna framework ensures the development and delivery of a learning programme that clearly exposes and provides a platform for appropriate observation, investigation, questioning and understanding of the physical world that impacts tamariki in many different ways.

Whakapapa

Knowing who you are and where you belong. Through knowing whakapapa, whānau gain their identity, history and knowledge about where they come from and where they belong. Whakapapa is the source of water safety knowledge.  READ MORE

Mātauranga

Māori knowledge and ways of knowing. Mātauranga is about the knowledge or understanding of everything visible and invisible existing in the universe. These may be passed down through oral historical stories, visual art, poems, songs and waiata. Mātauranga is the deepening of water safety knowledge. READ MORE

Tikanga

Tikanga is what we physically do in the water, but more importantly the right thing to do. Tikanga is concerned with the safety and protection of self and whānau. Strong whānau live according to their values and beliefs. Tikanga is the application of water safety knowledge. READ MORE