A playgroup in a garage. 28 years of aroha.

The original kopu tangata, 1998. Mama Torohata with the mamas, aunties, and tamariki who started it all.

Mama Torohata opened a playgroup in a family auntie’s garage in Māngere East in 1998. She wanted one thing: a place where Penrhyn tamariki could grow up hearing their language every day. No outside curriculum. No imported model. Just mamas and aunties — trained from within the community — teaching the language the way they had learned it from their own grandmothers.

It was full immersion from day one. The tamariki heard only their mother tongue. The centre moved from the garage, into a church space while the local AG building was being renovated, and then back into the space on Wickman Way that still houses us today.

Mama Torohata’s grand-niece, Temaria Tepuakura Tautu-Tengange, came on board as a parent volunteer — just to help preserve the language. Mama Torohata encouraged her to study. Temaria qualified as a puhapi (teacher), left for a time to work in mainstream ECE, and came back. She has been teaching for over two decades and has been the Centre Manager of Akaiti Mangarongaro for the past eight years.

The Torohata Trust Board was formally registered in 2009 where its purpose — akakorohanga maata — can be held and protected long-term. Mama Torohata has passed, but her vision still runs through every pure (prayer), every himene (song), every kaikai (meal) time at the centre.

Her legacy is not only found in the milestones she achieved, but in the countless small moments she created — moments of warmth, laughter, encouragement, and love. Today the trust continues to carry her name.

Today the centre is bi-cultural, teaching in the Penrhyn (Tongareva) Mangarongaro dialect and English, each spoken 50% of the time. At Akaiti Mangarongaro, they are the daily language of tamariki aged 10 months – 5 years.

Aunty Temaria and Aunty Moe are fluent Mangarongaro speakers who hold the te reo Mangarongaro (Penrhyn language) standard and review every cultural programme we run. Luke Mealamu chairs the Torohata Trust Board and connects the centre to Penrhyn Sports Club Inc — the pathway our tamariki walk into te au mapu (the younger generation) involved in sport and community beyond the punanga reo.

“Mama Torohata started this place in an auntie’s garage because she wanted Penrhyn children to hear their language every day. Twenty-eight years later, we’re still teaching it — the way she dreamed.”
— Temaria, Centre Manager