Akaiti Mangarongaro — A Cook Island Community in Māngere

What we do

Six pillars of community

We are more than an ECE. We are a Cook Island community development organisation — with six connected pillars that serve our kopu tangata across generations, from Mangere East to Auckland and the wider Cook Island diaspora.

Education & Learning

28 years of licensed, bilingual ECE where tamariki learn through baking, ceremony, story, and language.

Established

Culture & Language

One of the only places in the world where the Penrhyn (Tongareva) Mangarongaro dialect is spoken daily — 50/50 with English.

Established

Kopu Tangata Wellbeing

Building a hub that serves Cook Island kopu tangata across all life stages — not just early childhood.

Growing

Workforce Development

We grow our own. Supporting Cook Island and Pacific teachers through registration and professional development.

Established

Place & Heritage

A living cultural archive — artifacts, photos, and stories contributed by families over decades.

Growing

Economic Development

Building financial self-sufficiency through structured community activation — events, partnerships, and sponsorship that fund the mission long-term.

Growing

From our community

Stories from the centre

Real moments from the people who make Akaiti Mangarongaro home.

Tamariki baking banana bread at Akaiti Mangarongaro

Education

Banana bread & whole-child learning →

"Our tamariki are helping to make Banana Bread. Baking helps children learn by engaging them in hands-on, sensory experiences that develop math, science, literacy, and motor skills."

Temaria Tengange, Centre Manager · February 2026

Cook Island cultural artifacts at Akaiti Mangarongaro

Culture & Language

Pieces that tell our story →

"Each of their special pieces tells a story that was shared to our teachers and tamariki. A piece that connects to their parents' and grandparents' — and uniquely represents their identity."

Temaria Tengange · Cook Island Language Week, August 2025

Tamariki in a learning session at Akaiti Mangarongaro

Workforce

Aunty Moe — fully registered →

"Aunty Moe speaks fluent Mangarongaro and supports the centre in upholding our Philosophy and where our Mangarongaro language continues to be supported alongside our values, customs and beliefs."

Temaria Tengange · Teacher Registration, February 2026

See all our stories

Our direction

From 1998 to the horizon — charting the next 28 years.

In 1998, a group of Cook Island kopu tangata built a place where their language would live. Twenty-eight years later, the Torohata Trust is growing that foundation into something larger — a fully resourced Cook Island community hub that serves kopu tangata across Auckland and connects our diaspora to the culture and language that defines us.

1998
Where it all began. Their dream lives on.

Phase 1 · Underway

Strengthen the foundation

Tighten governance, clarify financials, audit our reporting, and lock down our existing entitlements so the centre stands on solid ground for what’s next.

Phase 2 · This year

Resource our people

Sustainable salary support for the leadership and teaching team that holds this place together — so the people who keep the language alive can keep doing it.

Phase 3 · Access

Remove barriers for whānau

Extend our reach to Cook Island families across South Auckland by closing the practical gaps — transport, equipment, learning resources — that today keep some tamariki out of reach.

Phase 4 · Place

Grow into our home

Develop the Wickman Way site so the building can hold the next generation of tamariki, kopu tangata, and cultural programming with the dignity the kaupapa deserves.

Phase 5 · The horizon

Self-sustaining for the long haul

Steady, diversified support that lets the Trust look 28 years forward with the same confidence it looks 28 years back — the language still spoken every day, the next generation already here.