Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is an indigenous tertiary education provider with over 80 campuses throughout New Zealand. As a Māori-led organisation grounded in Māori values, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is committed to the revitalisation of Māori cultural knowledge. It is also focused on breaking inter-generational cycles of non-participation in tertiary education to reduce poverty and eliminate associated social issues. The organisation works towards "whānau transformation through education". Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is one of three such wānanga organisations in New Zealand, and is currently one of the largest public tertiary education institutions in the nation. History Te Wānanga o Aotearoa was founded in 1984 to provide training and education for those whose needs were not being met by the mainstream education system. The genesis of what would become Te Wānanga o Aotearoa emerged as the brainchild of Te Awamutu College board of governors' member Rongo Wetere and Māori Studies teacher Iwi Kohuru (Boy) Mangu. The two men wanted to provide a "marae of learning" as an educational alternative for the large number of predominantly Māori students being expelled from Te Awamutu College. Their solution was to lead a group of these students to create a wharenui on the college's grounds. The two men were joined in their endeavours by tohunga whakairo (master carvers) Pakariki Harrison and Mac Bell and tohunga raranga (master weaver) Hinemoa Harrison. The resulting structure, O-Tāwhao Marae, was opened on 26 April 1985 and is still used to introduce students to (the world of Māori). Although the project encountered resistance at the time, O-Tāwhao is now recognised as an invaluable resource for the college and Te Awamutu community. In 1984, Mr Wetere led a project to create the Waipā Kōkiri Arts Centre. The centre would provide further educational opportunities for the students who were involved in the O-Tāwhao Marae project and engage others in the community who had no qualifications. The aim was to provide these people with a future beyond the unemployment queues. Although some government funding was available, further fundraising and, in some cases, personal loans from founders were needed to complete the centre. On completion of the centre, new government funding became available that enabled the Waipā Kōkiri Arts Centre to expand its programme portfolio. Office administration, computer technology studies and trades training programmes in building and plumbing were added to the whakairo (carving), raranga (weaving) and Te reo Māori programmes already running. The