Catherine Tamihere (Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi) has gone from feeling like an ‘outsider’ to making a beautiful mark on her community.
Catherine Tamihere
Pukekohe High School Art Teacher
Finding a Home in Franklin
Catherine moved into Franklin in 2016. She was searching for a home to raise her family within financial reach.
“We were renting in Ellerslie and we desperately needed to find a home,” she says. “After a stressful long search, there was one out in Patumāhoe and we went for it.”
“It was a little cul-de-sac, with a mixture of young families and people looking for their forever home in a small village. It was a really nice place to live! We really enjoyed it there with the kids. Patumāhoe has both a pre-school and a primary school within a short distance. Our kids walked to school – where can you actually do that these days?”.
She’d been working as a wedding photographer, but needed a change. So she enrolled in the University of Auckland and completed her Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching. The qualification landed her a job as an art teacher at Pukekohe High School.
“The amazing Vicky Moore-Allen and the team took me under their wing,” she says. “Being surrounded by kids and in an innovative art department really inspired me and set me on a new path.”
Confronting Pukekohe’s History
It was then that she stumbled across the book: No Māori Allowed by Dr Robert E Bartholomew. It details the shocking history of racial segregation and prejudice that still existed in the area up until the 1960s.
“At that time I could still feels the effects of the past, which was presenting itself through our kids, so I thought: ‘how valuable would it be if all the teachers and principals in Franklin knew about the history of Pukekohe?.’”
Catherine arranged for the author to come and talk at the Town Hall. This was picked up by documentary filmmakers, who produced a 45 minute film for TVNZ.
“That one event had this huge ripple effect,” she says.
“Shortly after the talk there was a ‘Hīkoi for Harmony.’ The purpose of the hīkoi was to come together to honour everyone who had been, and still are, affected by what had occurred, and to enjoy the company of others who feel passionately about the future of our tamariki.” Catherine explains. “At the end of the hīkoi, someone asked ‘now what?’ This is how the Pukekohe Mural Project was born.”
The result has been a series of collaborations between local authorities, iwi groups, schools and artists. Together, they’ve created four main pieces of community art in the town since 2021. As well as plenty of other projects for kindy’s and the newly refurbished train station.
“The feedback has been super-positive” says Catherine. “Some people were a little bit unsure at first, because the murals are a conversation about our difficult past, but once they understood the kaupapa and how it’s about learning, understanding and moving forward together, I think we are safe to say they like them. Our students received lots of praise from people walking by.”
Photo supplied by Catherine Tamihere
Looking to the Future
Then the new TIPENE was being established on the site of the old St Stephen’s School in Bombay. The co-principals reached out to Catherine.
She leapt at the chance after she heard what they were trying to achieve.
“At TIPENE, under the leadership of Yvette and Nathan, we’re redefining education for Māori boys. So it could very well provide an important blueprint for what education could look like in Aotearoa. The goal is to grow great people who are a positive influence on, not only their whānau, but their communities. I believe they’ll do that and more.”
The second wave of students to the new school were set to arrive within hours of our visit and kōrero. Catherine is planning an art exhibition at the school, which showcases student art work alongside work from legendary artists from around New Zealand. She is also planning the fifth and last mural to finish the series.
Photo supplied by Catherine Tamihere
I am a huge advocate for the arts because of what it brings to our community. Our murals are educational by telling us stories from the past, but they also foster pride, unity and belonging. They transform our spaces and make our town feel colourful, warm and inviting to all.
“I’m an outsider to Pukekohe, but I absolutely love our community, and all the kids that give this place energy. I love how my own tamariki have the chance to grow up here.”
The experience has transformed her relationship to this place, and to her culture. An outsider no more, Catherine feels at home at last.
“I love bumping into people you know and having a catch up on the street. There is that warmth to it. I would say you wouldn’t get that in the big cities. It’s become a bit of a running joke in our family where they say ‘no, don’t send Mumma, ‘cos she’ll get into a chit-chat! A two minute dairy stop is always 20 minutes!”
Photo supplied by Catherine Tamihere
