History, emotions, and a promising future wove together in a moving ceremony today at Ara Institute of Canterbury celebrating its transition to Te Pūkenga, the country’s national network of vocational education.

Titiro Whakamuri, Kōkiri Whakamua | Our Stories, Our Past, Our Future event featured powerful speeches by Ara and Te Pūkenga representatives, the dramatic presentation of a toki (a ceremonial axe) from Te Pūkenga to Ara as a symbol of the union, and a video outlining the institution’s 121-year history.

Hundreds of staff joined the event at Ara’s Te Puna Wānaka and via live stream across its other five campuses. Thérèse Arseneau, on her "first day as the former Board Chair" following a change in governance structures, thanked Ara colleagues for helping with the transition to Te Pūkenga even while continuing to deliver high-quality education and business support. She farewelled the institution by saying "Fly well, Ara."

Te Pūkenga Board Chair Murray Strong also expressed gratitude to the Ara community "for what you have done and what you are about to deliver," he said. "My request to you is that you continue to do what you do, and that you are open to the possibility of what an entire country can do together. Therein lies great opportunity."

A video outlining the institution’s 121-year history was produced for the occasion, evoking tears and smiles from the Ara community. The video included photographs from as far back as 1901 when the two institutions - CPIT and Aoraki Polytechnic - that would eventually merge to become Ara - were first established.

Joinery tutor Gary Ashby, who watched the event with 60 other colleagues at the Woolston campus, said the video was "a showstopper. It let everyone see what they were doing to train people back then, and that’s still what we’re doing today."

As a symbol of the South Island’s four polytechnics coming together into a new Te Pūkenga region, each of the four South Island polytechnics gifted a significant stone to represent their region. Te Marino Lenihan, who led the event as Ara’s Director - Te Tiriti Partnerships, said, "From Canterbury, we have gifted a riverstone from Waitaki, Tai Poutini Polytechnic has gifted a beautiful pounamu, and so too will SIT and Otago Polytechnic when they hold their ceremonies over coming weeks. The stones will be crafted into a single piece by Ngāi Tahu Master Carver Fayne Robinson, and will then be taken north to Te Pūkenga’s head office."

Darren Mitchell, whose Chief Executive role today changed to General Manager, reflected after the event. "This event was just what we needed to draw on our long and rich history and set the stage for our next step of our institution’s journey. It acknowledged our past, told some of our stories, and gave us confidence for our future, as the name of the event suggests."

Mtichell said he heard one colleague say that "I feel like ‘we’ are now finally ‘we.’"

© Scoop Media