Te Ātiawa - Waterways

Te Ātiawa Waterways is a digital a story book targeted at tamariki (children) aged years 5 to 11.

This book explains how the Taranaki township of Waitara got its name from the local Waitara river which comes from a much larger name which is ‘Te whai tara nui a Wharematangi I te kimi I tana matua I a Ngarue’.

This is the beginning of the story and as Wharematangi grows up he finds out that the only way to find his father is to follow the magic dart that Ngarue left behind. The story references locations and tīpuna, Wharematangi encountered during the search for his father.

One key highlight of this app is the conversion of traditional oral histories into a modern and interactive story book that is both palatable and extremely popular to our tamariki.