Mana Wāhine - Another New Building for Rangi Ruru

Yet another new building will be officially opened tomorrow at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch.

Ngāi Tahu Kaumātua Sir Tipene O’Regan will lead the ceremony at 7am, to bless and open Mana Wāhine, the third new building to open on the campus in the last seven weeks.

The Gibson Centre and Science Centre opened in early April.

As with the other new buildings, Mana Wāhine is an environmentally responsive building and has also been designed by Melbourne architects, McIldowie Partners.

Principal Julie Moor says the strength and energy in Mana Wāhine goes beyond the name of the building.

“Our girls know they can do whatever they set their minds to. We are here to support them and as part of that, knowing what women have achieved at different times in our history is essential to gaining a better understanding and appreciation of where we are today,” she says. “We must never take anything for granted.”

Each room is named after a strong woman with the school’s first fully dedicated Maori learning space called Dame Te Atairangikaahu after the late Maori Queen. Other recognised women include Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme; aviator Jean Batten; suffrage leader Kate Sheppard; Canterbury’s founding mother Jane Deans; and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani school girl and education activist who survived a gunman’s bullet in 2012.

Jean Brouwer, Rangi Ruru’s Head of Student Services, says the new building provides spaces for one on one tutoring and counselling, in addition to eight large classrooms – two for Global Living and six for Social Sciences.

“We support all levels of learning here,” she says. “Whether girls need additional support or are highly able academically, we provide what they need, and in a bright and energetic space,” she says.

Other special features in Mana Wāhine include a stunning Maori carving by Riki Manuel, and a woven wall hanging by Rangi Ruru old girl, artist Peg Moorhouse who is travelling from Marlborough for the opening.

A school Community Open Day on 4 June from 1.30-430pm, will enable members of the public to view these impressive new buildings as well as the historic buildings of the Church of St Andrew’s at Rangi Ruru, and Te Koraha.

Strong Women - ROOMS

Jean Batten - Aviator
Jean Gardner Batten CBE OSC was a New Zealand aviator. Born in Rotorua, she became the best-known New Zealander of the 1930s, internationally, by taking a number of record-breaking solo flights across the world.
Born: September 15, 1909, Rotorua
Died: November 22, 1982, Majorca, Spain
Books: Alone in the Sky, Jean Batten: My Life - New Zealand's Greatest Woman Pilot

Kate Sheppard – Suffragette
Katherine Wilson Sheppard, also known as Kate, was the most prominent member of New Zealand's Women's Suffrage and was the country's most famous suffragette. She is recognised as the leader of the fight to win the right for New Zealand women to vote. Kate and other pioneering women campaigned so effectively that in 1893 New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world to grant the vote to all women over 21.
Born: March 10, 1847, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Died: July 13, 1934, Christchurch
Spouse: William Sidney Lovell-Smith (m. 1925–1929), Walter Sheppard(m. 1915–1915)

Malala Yousafzai - Journalist
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school pupil and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Malala was shot by a gunman in October 2012 and survived.
Born: July 12, 1997 (age 16), Mingora, Pakistan
Parents: Ziauddin Yousafzai
Education: Edgbaston High School
Books: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Awards: Sakharov Prize, National Malala Peace Prize
Nominations: Nobel Peace Prize, International Children's Peace Prize

Jane Deans - Founding Mother 
Jane Deans was a New Zealand founding mother and community leader. She came to Christchurch in 1853 onto her husband's farm that he had established ten years earlier. Her husband died in the following year, and Deans became a community leader.
Born: April 21, 1823
Died: January 19, 1911
Spouse: John Deans

Mother Teresa - Roman Catholic Religious Sister and Missionary
The Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C., commonly known as Mother Teresa, was a Roman Catholic Religious Sister and missionary of Albanian origin who lived most of her life in India of which, since 1948, she was a citizen.
Born: August 26, 1910, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Died: September 5, 1997, Kolkata, India
Full name: Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu
Nationality: Indian
Awards: Nobel Peace Prize, Bharat Ratna and others
Parents: Nikollë Bojaxhiu, Dranafile Bojaxhiu

Benazir Bhutto - Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1988 until October 1990, and 1993 until her final dismissal in November 1996.
Born: June 21, 1953, Karachi, Pakistan
Assassinated: December 27, 2007, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Spouse: Asif Ali Zardari (m. 1987–2007)
Children: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, Asifa Bhutto Zardari
Parents: Nusrat Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Rosa Parks - Activist
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Born: February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
Died: October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Spouse: Raymond Parks (m. 1932–1977)
Awards: Spingarn Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom

Boadicea – Celtic Warrior Queen
Boudica, also known as Boadicea, and known in Welsh as Buddug was the British Celtic warrior queen who led a revolt against Roman occupation.
Born: Wales, United Kingdom
Died: 61 AD, Britannia

Hildegard of Bingen - Saint
One of the most creative personalities of the middle ages, Hildegard of Bingen was a celebrated visionary theologian, composer, poet and philosopher. She once described a vision of tongues of flame descending from the heavens to settle upon her, imparting knowledge. She thereafter devoted herself to a life of intense and passionate creativity. She was also involved in politics and diplomacy; her friendship and advice were sought by popes, emperors, kings and archbishops.
Born: September 16, 1098, Bermersheim vor der Höhe, Germany
Died: September 17, 1179, Bingen am Rhein, Germany

Dame Te Atairangikaahu - Māori Queen ONZ DBE OStJ
Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu was the Māori Queen for 40 years, the longest reign of any Māori monarch. Her title Te Arikinui (meaning Paramount Chief) and name Te Atairangikaahu (meaning the hawk of the morning sky) were bestowed when she became monarch; previously she was known as Princess Piki Mahuta and, after marriage, Princess Piki Paki.
Born: 23 July 1931
Died: 15 August 2006

Helen Clark - Former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ SSI was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008. She was the first woman elected, at a general election, as the Prime Minister, and was the fifth longest serving person to hold that office. She has been Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the third-highest UN position, since 2009. Forbes magazine ranked her 20th most powerful woman in the world in 2006 and 50th in 2012.
Born: February 26, 1950, Hamilton
Spouse: Peter Davis (m. 1981)
Education: University of Auckland (‘74), Uni of Auckland (‘68–‘71), Epsom Girls' Grammar School
Parents: George Clark, Margaret McMurray

Note: 
Wahine = woman     /      Wāhine = women