Green Woollen narrow belt, secured with a green button

This uniform has been gifted by Awhina Tamarapa from her time at Queen Victoria Boarding School 1982-83. The yellow and white gingham dress was worn on Sundays for attendance at church.

 

The school culture and ideals of Queen Victoria Boarding School were deeply Christian. The motto “Mo te Atua me te Kuini” – for God and Queen reflected this. However, as Awhina says: “we were Maori, at that time, strong in Maori values and education in the absence of Maori being taught in total immersion. Our whole life was Maori.”

 

The irony was while the school may have been founded as a machine to help reform young Maori into model European Christians; through time the intentions were altered and the schools were seen as institutions to develop model Maori leaders. And in doing so, the meaning of the uniform altered as well.

 

“I look back at the uniforms now and they seem so old fashioned, but at the time, they represented who we were. We belonged somewhere and we were together as a group-quite a distinctive, strong group.” Awhina Tamarapa