Kura Kāinga Care

11/02/2026

There’s something so wholesome about watching my baby explore the resources I made for other tamariki before he was even manifested ✨

These are a few discs from the Tohu Memory Game sets available for purchase over on the website. While they were designed with the memory game in mind, the discs can be used by children of all ages for spontaneous play-based learning and sensory play.

25/01/2026

🔴⚫️ WAITANGI DAY 2026 🔴⚫️

Take the whole whanau along and get amongst it !

13/01/2026

Hari Tou Hou Pakeha whanau !
I hope you all had a blessed holiday period with your loved ones and have started the year off well.
My Manawa is 12 weeks old now, out of the newborn stage and we have found our flow as Māmā and pēpi ❤️
As much as I love this stay at home Māmā gig it can feel boring and lonely sometimes!
So I’ve decided to set up a Māmā and pēpi group to meet and hang with some other mums in the same space as me.

Details:

🕰️ 8-10am, Tuesdays beginning in Feb

📍My place in Willow Vale . We can hang here for coffee, snacks and chats. I’ll provide age appropriate activities for the tamariki, then we can go for a lil hikoi to the local park around 200m away.

💵 There will be a small cost of $15 per week to cover the snacks and activity bags which you will be able to take home with you.

👶🏽 Best suited for tamariki aged 0-2 years of age but a few older children will be fine also, I’ll just need to know before time so I can plan.

Please DM to register your interest !!

13/11/2025

Almost a month postpartum, I still can’t believe I have a newborn. I spend my days staring at him, playing with his toes, breathing in his scent and enjoying the cuddles. Feeling just so in love 🥰

Having had my other tamariki, now teenagers, I know how fast the time goes by and how quick they grow up. So I’m holding on the moments, slowing down to soak up each snuggle, being present , feeling the blessing, it gets me through each night time feed, the sleep exhaustion and the times I feel emotionally and physically drained. When my pēpi looks at me with his big bright blue eyes, my heart melts and it’s all worth it.

During my pregnancy, his Pāpā and I had many conversations about how we wanted to show up as parents, the values we wanted to role model, the lessons we had both learnt from raising our own children the first time around.

Most important to us was openly loving and respecting each other, creating a safe and loving home environment, demonstrating healthy communication and normalising te reo Māori and infusing it into our daily lives.

When I was hapū I sang waiata to my pēpi, my favourites are “E toru nga mea” and “Tama Ngākau” as they remind me of my grandmother and great grandmother.

To encourage and support myself and my whanau I’ve started to create some new resources … a waiata booklet and labels with everyday phrases that we can use at home with pēpi, young children. Once I’m finished putting them together I’ll put it up in the shop and share the link to purchase.

It’s a journey of revitalisation and reclamation for our whole whanau, inspired by our tama and Id love to share to inspire other whanau who are on their own waka too x

28/10/2025

🌱 Te Mana o te Wahine 🌱

Our tama Manawa is 12 days old today!
We are both doing so well, both of us very healthy and happy. He’s just a perfect little bubba 😍

While I’m adjusting to my new life as a Mum of a newborn I reflect upon what I’ve just experienced, my hapūtanga journey and the free birthing of my pēpi.

I was determined to have baby naturally at home right from the start of my pregnancy.
I sought out a private midwife to support my birthing at home, very specifically choosing someone from back home who understood our tīkanga. So expensive for private care here in Australia, like $5k, but I didn’t mind this to have the birth that I so wanted.

At our 20 week scan they picked up that I had a low-lying and bi-lobed placenta and shortened cervix. They advised I go to the hospital immediately for an assessment.

Obviously this caused me panic and fear and I followed their advice, waiting 8 hours to be admitted overnight to await the verdict by a doctor. This doctor saw me the next day and told me matter of factly and coldly that it was likely I’d have to get a cesarean - which was my worst possible birthing outcome.

The remainder of my pregnancy I was under close monitoring - being deemed a high risk “geriatric pregnancy” 😂. I went to the hospital every 4 weeks for scans which I didn’t mind because we got to see our baby boy growing and developing in the womb.

By 36 weeks, the placenta had naturally moved up out of the way and there was no real risk to having baby naturally - to be honest I don’t think there ever was, it was just a lot of fear mongering by the system. Followed by them putting lots of pressure on me to register for a hospital birth, which I did in the end for paperwork reasons.
Then as soon as I did register they started to push me to have an induction at 39 weeks!
But my intention to birth at home never wavered.
Even when my midwife let me know she could no longer be my primary care at around 30 weeks and I was faced with birthing with no professional support at all, I was confident and strong in my mana and belief in myself that me and my baby could do it unassisted with my tane by my side.

I knew Manawa would come before his due date and I was ready for him.
I had bought a pool and set up a peaceful birthing space on our back patio surrounded by plants and pretty lights. However, labour happened so hard and fast - 3 hours - that we didn’t even get to fill the pool up in time.

I’d thought I’d want my tane to rub my back and comfort me but in the thick of it I didn’t want to be touched or talked to 😂
I was so in the zone, focussed on my breathing and surviving each wave of contractions as they flowed through me.

I became concerned when I started to bleed and pass blood clots . As determined as I was to birth at home I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to baby or myself so I asked my tane to call an ambulance . The pain was also so bloody intense I was keen to have a puff on some gas at that point!

So the ambo showed up they load us in and we are ready to go. All of a sudden I have a huge contraction and his head popped out! They turn off the ambulance and my tane jumps down the end of the stretcher, does a moving haka to carry his son into the world and catches him on the next contraction.

So still technically birthed at home , just in the back of the ambulance in our driveway ! We went to the hospital from there for the checkups and check overs , passing of the whenua , and were discharged after a standard 6 hours.

I’m so proud of myself for the way I held my vision of my perfect birth experience, despite the perceived risks and attempts to instil fear along the way. That I intuitively trusted in myself and in my body and my baby that we could do it together naturally and we did.

And So proud of my hoa rangatira for honouring my beliefs and wishes, for supporting me every step of the way, for creating my birth space and for holding me down when plans took a slight change during the birthing. I love you so much ❤️

I’m still a little bit in shock and awe of the whole experience, like did I really just grow a baby for 9 months then pop him out just like that ?! Staring at my precious baby in my arms all day long is proof that dreams do come true and good things come to those who wait ❤️

We Wāhine are just amazing, our power, our strength, our capability to create and nurture new life from our womb and from our breasts.

“Me aro koe ki te hā o Hine-ahu-one ~ pay heed to the power and dignity of women “

26/10/2025

Sharing the arrival of my beautiful baby boy

Manawa Mikaere Bob Bowater
Born 17th October
38 weeks 5 days gestation
10.21am

Born naturally at home delivered into his Pāpā’s arms ☺️

It’s been a week of newborn baby bliss, feeling so in love and awe of this little creation ❤️
Also getting used to being in the trenches of sleeplessness, breastfeeding and nappy changes whilst my body recovers and my hormones and emotions are all over the show .
Despite all of that I feel so blessed and content in our little whanau bubble 🥰

Id love to share my birth story in my next post as it was a pretty special experience ☺️

Nau mai ki te Ao Marama taku tama, taku Manawa ❤️

26/09/2025

36 weeks hapū today ! Getting so excited to welcome our baby boy into Te Ao Marama !

This week I spent some time setting up his first moenga next to our bed and creating a Tohu Mobile to hang on the wall, which then inspired me to offer these taonga / treasures to the website to make them available for purchase.

These Tohu Mobiles are made with aroha and the intention of infusing familiar and significant tohu/symbols of Te Ao Māori into the home environment.

Made with aroha to hang by the bedside of your pēpi for visual stimulation and connection to culture as they drift into their dreams.

Head over to our shop at www.kurakaingacare.com

Blanky and matching comforter from AwaMae
www.awamae.com

24/09/2025

There's been an influx of new followers to this page, so I thought it was a good time to re-introduce myself and a bit of background about the business.

Ko Maungataniwha me Whetumatarau ōku maunga
Ko Te Moho me Awatere ōku awa
Ko Tokerau me Te Moana nui a Kiwa ōku moana
Ko Parapara me Awatere ōku marae
Ko Ngāti Kahu me Ngāti Porou ōku iwi
Ko Dawn Priestley toku ingoa

I'm a Mana Wāhine, a leader, a creator, an entrepreneur and the owner /director/ creator/founder of Kura Kaīnga Care.

I’m a Māmā of two teens, aged 18 and 16 years old, and am currently 36 weeks hapū with a beautiful baby boy.

For the past two years I’ve been working as an NDIS Support Coordinator as my day job.

I'm a teacher with a long career of experience in Early Childhood teaching. I gained my qualifications from the University of Auckland , where we were taught within the framework of Te Whāriki. I have worked in many different mainstream centres and with all different age groups, both back home then when I moved here to Australia.

I got such a culture shock when I moved here and found the education system to be VERY different to that of back home. I felt like my values were not aligned with any centre cultures I experienced, nor were my own teaching approaches valued.

I became passionate about creating an alternative childcare offering, a quality education and care model, grounded in culture, connection and nurturing. And Kura Kāinga Care was born!

It started off as the “Hire a Whaea” babysitting service, where I had built a team of carers led by myself that went into whanau whare to care for their tamariki. I began creating some educational resources for the Whaea to take along to jobs with them and there was the element that we were not just babysitters, but offering cultural education, bringing Te Ao Māori into the home.

In 2024, I offered a family daycare model from my home in Willow Vale, two days a week. This is where I felt truly in my element, in my flow, so grateful to be implementing my own personal teaching philosophy from my own home.

When I fell hapū I put it all on hold right away. We had lost a bubba in October last year, so I really wanted to take care and nurture myself as much as possible. I’ve for now turned my focus to building up the resource shop on the website, getting into my creative zone, dreaming up new concepts, revisiting old ideas and taking action to implement them.

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to experience hapūtanga again in this phase of life and it has deepened my appreciation of us wahine as creators and bearers of life.
I see this time as a slowing down, a settling into a creative flow, a coming home to myself, an invitation to just be, present with my pēpi, my tane and my teens. To walk the talk, to implement all the skills and knowledge I have gathered over the years and live into the wahine I really want to be! I’m excited to share my Māmāhood journey here and all the taonga that I create along the way ###n

19/09/2025

🌟 FREE GIVEAWAY!! 🌟

To celebrate this past week of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, Kura Kāinga Care are doing a free giveaway of our printable resources !

Head over to the website to download a copy of the Parāoa Pokepoke - Playdough recipe in Te Reo Māori and the Oropuare Placemats , for FREE !

Designed to encourage parents to learn alongside their tamariki in a fun and creative way , our e-resources are a perfect way to learn Te Reo through play!

They’ll be free for the next 24 hours only! Download, print and laminate your copies today !

www.kurakaingacare.com

03/09/2025

Check out and follow this pākihi Heitiki Books. Writing stories about tamariki growing up in Australia and going back home to Aotearoa for the first time ❤️

Amplifying Māori & Indigenous voices ✨
𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴. 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦.

16/08/2025

OUR SHOP HAS BEEN REOPENED !

“Natural resources created and crafted with aroha, to enhance learning and teaching experiences that promote te reo Māori for tamariki and whanau”

As I’ve been hibernating and creating this pēpi within, I’ve also been in business creative flow, revisiting and reflecting on Kura Kāinga and what I have to offer in my current capacity.

I’ve spent some time updating the website and restocking our Resource Shop as well as creating a few new items.

In the shop we now have :

~ Wooden Games and Flashcards
~ Sensory Play Kits
~ Printable Resources

Check it out whanau !

www.kurakaingacare.com