Have you ever panned for gold, dug up fossils or met a raptor called Tai in Te Awamutu?
Those looking for some school holiday fun in town last week found just that at Te Awamutu Museum Education and Research Centre.
Members of the museum’s kids’ club – Tui and Tama Club – were given a first look at a display put on by Legends Unleashed Dinosaurs Aotearoa on Thursday morning, before it was opened to the wider public later in the day.
Dallas Griffin, 6, goes in search of ‘fossils’ at Te Awamutu Museum Education and Research Centre last week. Photo: Jeremy Smith
Te Awamutu Museum Education and Research Centre exhibitions coordinator Henriata Nicholas told The News the morning’s peek for kids’ club members – of which there are about 600 Waipā wide – was a reward for those who had attended all six of the monthly Tui and Tama activity programmes held at the museum between July and December last year.
Those have included monthly themes such as Matariki, ancestry, Te Reo Māori and myths and legends.
“This is just another way this fantastic space can be used for the kids to have fun,” she said.
For founder Darren Bell – or Dinosaur Darren – the genesis of Legends Unleashed Dinosaurs Aotearoa came from childhood stories of his tupuna and legends of taniwha recited to him by his grandmother.
Rista the raptor trainer, Rista Theron, left, and Dinosaur Darren – Darren Bell – present to Te Awamutu Museum Education and Research Centre kids club, Tui and Tama Club, members with Kihikihi’s Mayer McCall, 9. Photo: Supplied
Beginning in 2004, Legends Unleashed Dinosaurs Aotearoa takes tamariki on an educational journey back in time, not only to the age of dinosaurs, but the days when Darren’s tupuna encountered the mighty taniwha.
The programme is run in schools and kindergartens Waikato wide.
Joined by Rista Theron, or Rista the raptor trainer, in Te Awamutu – children who attended were given the chance to go gold panning, dig for fossils and meet Tai the animatronic raptor.
“The whole area of science and geology has become a bit of a passion,” Darren said.
“If we care for, steward and respect our whenua well, it has some incredible gifts to give us,” he said.
And, by bringing the world of dinosaurs to life in a way which creates excitement, Darren said, the hope was to inspire passion in Aotearoa’s “little dinosaur hunters”, who could one day work in the industry.
Hudson Griffin, 5, goes in search of ‘fossils’ at Te Awamutu Museum Education and Research Centre last week. Photo: Jeremy Smith
Travis Bell, 11, – who is starting Cambridge Middle School this year – gets a photo with Rista the raptor trainer, Rista Theron, and animatronic raptor Tai. Photo: Jeremy Smith
