Room 21 have created a class Taniwha, and here is Brianna Akaroa’s story on how Kaiwhare came to Room 21.
The Defender- The Myth of Room 21’s Taniwha
By: Brianna Akaroa
A couple thousand years ago, there was a young Taniwha called Kaiwhare who loved to see all the Maori people pass. As the years passed, he did not like to watch them, so he turned against them and looked for something to protect. Everything had looked so quiet. But then, one day, in 2019, he discovered something. It was in Papatoetoe, in a school. People were fighting and yelling, causing chaos everywhere.
“Finally!” Kaiwhare said. “Something to look after!”. But when he peeked through the door, he did not see one person. He saw many people, both short and tall. He opened the door and when the children noticed him, they wailed so loud, the whole of papatoetoe could hear them.
“STTTTTOOOOOPPPPP!!!” said Kaiwhare. They all froze. They were too terrified to get up and speak.
“ Hi, my name is Kaiwhare and I am here to protect you from all the bad things out there in the world. So what are your names?”. Just then, one of the young children spoke up, “ H-Hi, my n-n-n-name is M-M-M-Mele and this is Harmony, here’s Te-Te-Te Kaea, this is Mad-Mad-Maddison, this is Sa-Sa-Sa-Samantha and she’s A-A-A-Ann. Nice to (gulp) meet you.” “ Well, nice to meet you all, where are the rest?”
“ They are at swimming, we didn’t want to go.” said Te Kaea, suddenly looking peppy. While the others were scared.
“ Kia Ora, kuaore au i tutaki ki tetahi tangata tino pai me te nui.” Te Kaea said.
“ What did you say?” said Kaiwhare.
“I said hi, I have never met anyone so cute and big.” said Te kaea in a know it all voice. When the rest of the class came, they were shocked at the sight.
“What is this fat thing doing here?” Cubyn said rudely. The Taniwha let out a slight whimper.
“Kaiwhare is not fat and by the way, he’s here to protect us from bad outcasts from all over the world Excuse you!” said Ann, who spoke in the tone of Cubyn, the class boss.
“Oh, well ex-ca-use me for calling him a fat thing but how am I supposed to know he is protecting us looking like……. like that??”
They all argued and argued until two adults broke them up.
“Oy, I got Mr Young for this, so it better be worth it. Where is Mr Allen??!!!” screamed Mr Ginders.
“ Oy, I do not want to waste my time on a make believe taniwha. You have wasted your learning time and my time to be the principal of this school. Mr Ginders has called me for nothing and as a good payback, you will be performing a play in front of the whole school.” said Mr Young.
“When?” said Maynard, who was always curious about topics.
“ You are going to perform it TODAY!!” Mr Young said in an evil but amused voice as the children groaned with shock. They couldn’t write a play in four hours. It would take weeks to do it, even months or years, but four hours was surely not enough time. Then, the Taniwha hissed.
“What will he do to Mr Young?” said Te Kaea in a low voice.
“ I hope Kaiwhare turns him into a pretzel,” said Maire, who had been eavesdropping.
“Well, I hope he turns him into a frog,” said Brianna, who had a very hopeful tone.
“ You know what Cubyn and I think? We think Kaiwhare’s going to turn him into an elephant!” said Leonidas, with Cubyn by his side. Who would win?
“ You are going to go back to your office without a sound. They will not be doing a play and if you ever do that again, I will turn you into a cat!” yelled Kaiwhare in a horrifying voice. Mr Young screamed like a girl and wanted to fire himself, but couldn’t, only the boss above him, which was a terrifying person.
So, in the end, Kaiwhare protected them from Mr Young. But never let the principal catch you fighting, or there will be severe consequences to face. Do not let him see you, or you will be sorry. You will be very sorry. So be careful, or you might just end up in jail. Lastly, never let Mr Ginders catch you or you will be sent to Mr Young’s office, otherwise known as children prison. Listen to Kaiwhare the Taniwha so you can get dojo points. Kaiwhare told Brianna to get on with her work, and she got dojo points.
