When I saw the beautiful exhibition of various moa designed and constructed at the museum - I had absolutely NO idea these carefully constructed birds, eggs and creations were made by tamariki! They were outstanding, creative and unique (much like our Catlins learners themselves)! The tamariki listened to an awesome, inspiring and educational speech from Moa expert Quinn Berentson (how lucky were we) and they learned so much. What was even more impressive were the questions these tamariki posed after the session. Very bright indeed! Well done to all the TCAS tamariki who represented the Catlins well and created such beautiful artworks to show off at our local Owaka Museum Community Gallery. 

Shelley Povey

After being impressed with the Dinosaur exhibition at TCAS in 2022, Mike from the Owaka Museum had asked us if we would like to create an exhibition for the upcoming opening of the Lockerbie Collection at the museum. As part of our research classes went down to see the collection and find out a bit about Les Lockerbie. The collection is not quite ready to be open to the public yet, but I am sure we will hear more from the museum when it is open.

Mike invited Quinn Berentson to come and speak to the students. It was an exciting opportunity to have someone with so much passion for Moa come and talk to the students, and it made us realise how important the Catlins is in the research that has been done on Moa to date.

Visitors from all around NZ and the world have been in to the museum and seen the work of our students. Congratulations to all the students who worked so hard on making artworks ready for public display. 

Thank you to the Owaka Museum, and a special thank you to Caley Hall, Glenda Landreth, and Mike McPhee who helped our art teacher Maryann Darmody to set up the display. Also special mention to Lois from Mcauslin Merino Wool (www.mcauslin.co.nz) who donated some natural, spun and hand dyed wool specifically for students to use on their Moa sculptures. 

Maryann Darmody