Flagpole dream now a reality
Mitchell Wallace, 12, has dreamed of a flagpole for his Upper Hutt school. Today he will fly its first flag – Tino Rangatiratanga – to mark the start of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. (Māori Language Week).
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori language week) is off to a flying start at St Joseph’s Catholic School (Te Kura Katorika o Hāto Hohepa) with the school raising the Tino Rangatiratanga for the first time on its new flagpole.
For his final year, 12-year-old Upper Hutt student and cultural leader Mitchell Wallace set the lofty goal of having a flagpole erected at the school to celebrate its diversity. “For language weeks, most of the time we only did small activities so I thought if we got a flagpole we’d be able to hang those flags during the week,” he explained.
It started with writing a proposal to get permission from the school’s principal, Andrew Herrick, and was followed by leading a campaign to raise the $570 needed for the pole and its seven flags.
Wallace (Taranaki Iwi) planned to raise the money by selling hāngī from local master CJ’s and custard steam puddings during the week of Matariki. To market the fundraiser he put up posters all around the city.
Surpassing his initial target by selling 100 hāngī and 50 steam puddings, he ended up selling 180 hāngī and 78 puddings to raise more than $850. The leftover money was donated to the school to help with its breakfast club and lunch programme.
With help from dad Michael, Wallace chose the site for the new flagpole, pouring the concrete base needed and assembling the flag pole at the weekend.
The first flag to be flown was the Tino Rangatiratanga flag to mark the start of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. He also has flags for Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Matariki week and the national New Zealand flag.
Wallace said the hardest part of the project had been learning all the rules about flag etiquette – you can’t fly them at night, put them on the ground or put up a ripped flag because its seen as “disrespectful”.
The 580-strong school was to celebrate with a blessing ceremony this morning.