Solving problems: Te Mauri Hā café and classroom

Kura teacher Adrian ‘Adi’ Leason encourages students in his English class to think critically. Last year, when he asked them to focus on ‘what’s going on?’, they talked about seeing people sleeping under hedges, someone pushing a supermarket trolley full of packet noodles and a queue along the footpath beside a local fast-food outlet.

The year 13 students of Te Kura ā Iwi o Whakatupuranga Rua Mano (WRM), in Ōtaki, saw people struggling with the problem of nourishment. Closer to hand, they saw another problem: a serious lack of space for one of school’s junior classes, which was being taught in a resource cupboard.

The students decided to tackle both problems by building an all-in-one portable classroom and café. They saw it as a way to feed the mind and body through food and connection. “We can talk at length about why a problem exists, and sometimes that's helpful,” Leason explains, “but we can also just get straight to solutions, and that’s what the kids did.”

The completed 6x3m cabin, which houses an array of couches, a potbelly stove for the winter months, fridge, bench and gas hob, was originally moved to the Kura, where it initially served as an adjunct classroom. When it came time for Te Mauri Hā to assume the other side of its dual identity – as a free café – it was taken to a spot beside the dunes at Ōtaki Beach.

The café is open from 8am to 6pm, seven days a week, serving mugs of tea, bracing stovetop-brewed coffee and homemade baking brought in by volunteers. A koha jar takes the place of a price list, with donations from those who choose to contribute providing enough to cover the small expenses of running the space.

The main challenge for the students was to find time to sustain their dream once it was open to the public. Their original intention was to staff the café themselves. Student Starr Rikihana says, “I think we were more committed to this project than we were to our actual classes.” Leason says that they’ve been overwhelmed by the support of the local community who came forward and created a roster of two-hour shifts. Volunteers now serve in the café and provide manaakitanga (kindness) to all comers.

The combined café and learning space has had more than 2,000 visitors since it was relocated to the beach. Selina Metuamate, a Kairangahau (researcher) at Massey University, and one of the café volunteers, describes it as magnetising for both locals and foreign visitor. “This is a space where we can just be ourselves and be at peace with the environment.”

Meanwhile, Leason often meets his students at Te Mauri Hā for discussions about life and English literature. The Kura reading list includes dystopian classics such as Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 51. “It’s fun to talk about these books in an environment that’s posing questions by just being there. The kids have made the connection that life’s not just about being in school and exploring theories, but also about pushing boundaries,” he says. “Everyone who comes here enjoys the same breeze, the same coffee, the same ocean and there’s no money. Finances are just not a barrier to enjoying all this beauty.”

Student Halo Rikihana says, “It’s not normal to be learning [in an English class] about how to build a café and how other people are struggling, but we really made a difference. I think we really did. It’s about learning to treat other people with kindness and give to everyone in need.”