HOW IT ALL BEGAN

 

Papa Taiao grew out of these words: “We don’t expect them to pass anything, just make sure they don’t burn the school down.”

There were 18 Māori boys, 4 Pākeha boys and two girls in that class. The ākonga didn’t lack talent, they lacked engagement in education after many years being told their qualities, skills and talents were not valued. 

To re-engage the ākonga, Marty Taylor talked with Richard Nahi from Puatahi Marae to design a course. Nahi volunteered to help Taylor take the ākonga trapping to protect a Nationally Critically threatened bird called Weweia. The team took the ākonga into the bush, harvested totara and nikau and built a traditional whare nikau. While walking, talking and spending time connecting to the whenua Richard shared his Mātauranga, tikanga and kawa and Marty developed NCEA programmes that recognised student learning. That year all ākonga helped Marty design the course and they learnt how to trap and run a small fur collecting business and they all passed NCEA from the co-created innovative curriculum. More importantly all the rangatahi began to see themselves as valuable, capable and successful. They connected to their whenua and realised how important being Māori was to them. The non-Māori learnt respect for Mātauranga Māori. After seeing the results Richard gifted us the name Papa Taiao. In service to partnership and out of respect for Te Tiriti Taylor added the word Earthcare to the name. 

Papa Taiao Earthcare evolved from Education for Sustainability in the New Zealand curriculum and has been running since 2012.

 
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Our Values

 

Be bold, creative and enterprising. Work together for a better world.

 
 

Manaakitanga

Raising the Mana of people, and things, by showing respect and kindness.

Whanaungatanga

Building our strength by strengthening relationships in our community.

Tangata Whenuatanga

Strengthening the understanding of our inter-connectedness with the Earth.

Kaitiakitanga

Exercising guardianship over all things special to Aotearoa / NZ including the land, our flora and fauna, and our precious things, such as, culture, water, sea, knowledge, people and our character.

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Our Vision

Papa Taiao believes that building a culturally, socially, environmentally and economically sustainable future is the global challenge of this century. By providing programmes to Taiohi (students) in Aotearoa, young people can lead and make the changes they want to see – and become the change makers for a better future.

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The papa taiao team

Papa Taiao Partners

 
Papa Taiao has an NZQA approved subcontracting agreement with the National Trade Academy. This agreement enables us to assess standards using NTA’s consents to assess. NTA has provided Papa Taiao with Trades Academy places since 2017. This has enabl…

Papa Taiao has an NZQA approved subcontracting agreement with the National Trade Academy. This agreement enables us to assess standards using NTA’s consents to assess. NTA has provided Papa Taiao with Trades Academy places since 2017. This has enabled us to deliver programmes in Te Upoko o Te Ika, Porirua, Te Awakairangi, Whangaroa and Tai Rawhiti.

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Te Puna Kōkiri generously supported our work on Māori youth engaging in enterprise in 2018/2019

Te Puna Kōkiri generously supported our work on Māori youth engaging in enterprise in 2018/2019

Kaicycle and Papa Taiao Earthcare have developed the Urban Regenerative Agriculture course in Wellington.

Kaicycle and Papa Taiao Earthcare have developed the Urban Regenerative Agriculture course in Wellington.

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Te Tai Tokerau has been has been a founding partner, providing Trades Academy places to Papa Taiao in Te Tai Tokerau since the beginning.

Te Tai Tokerau has been has been a founding partner, providing Trades Academy places to Papa Taiao in Te Tai Tokerau since the beginning.

Predator Free 2050 provided Papa Taiao a grant in 2019 to develop impact measurement tools for predator free education.

Predator Free 2050 provided Papa Taiao a grant in 2019 to develop impact measurement tools for predator free education.

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Curious minds have allocated major grants to Papa Taiao in 2018 for the Papa Taiao Predator Free Secondary School Programme and in 2019 to develop the Papa Taiao Wānanga.

Curious minds have allocated major grants to Papa Taiao in 2018 for the Papa Taiao Predator Free Secondary School Programme and in 2019 to develop the Papa Taiao Wānanga.

In 2020 WWF through their Environmental Education Action Fund

In 2020 WWF through their Environmental Education Action Fund

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