RFI are honored to welcome Māori from Aotearoa (New Zealand), the land of the long white cloud. The Te Wharekura o Ruatoki group comes from a secondary school of 240 students, located in a small rural community. It belongs to the iwi (tribe) of the Tūhoe, the children of the mist, which rises every morning in the Ruatoki valley. The only māori tribe not to have signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the Tūhoe have been able to preserve their language, their lands and their marae.

At the Waikirikiri marae, they celebrate joys and sorrows, dance the haka, honor the tīpuna (ancestors), get moko (traditional tattoos) and, above all, respect tikanga (values and customs) and kawa (ceremonial protocols). This summer, the young Tūhoe take with them their sacred river, Ohinemataroa, which protects them during this great new journey.