Te Kete Aronui

Te Kete Aronui – The Te Haa o te Whenua o Kirikiriroa (THaWK) group collectively devised the following name and narrative for the building.

“A new name that is significant and relevant to this building

in Rototuna. We are referring to Te kete aronui, a basket

of knowledge of aroha, peace and the arts and crafts which

benefit the Earth and all living things – one of the three

baskets of knowledge. This basket relates to knowledge

acquired through careful observation of the environment.

It is also the basket of ritual, of literature, philosophy and

is sometimes regarded as the basket of the humanities.

This is how we would describe and refer to this place.”

– Sonny Karena

https://hamiltonlibraries.co.nz/location-and-hours/te-kete-aronui/

The deaf blogger/author took Jacek – a deaf with speech impaired and CP (Cerebral Palsy), one Sunday morning after the new library opened in Rototuna, Hamilton. We did explore the building to see if there are friendly and accessible for all people and children with disabilities. He found it a great place to visit the library, especially an indoor cafe in Rototuna.

The blogger/author was invited by the Hamilton City Council, the librarian manager and the Disability Advisor staff of the Hamilton City Council, and we were in a team to overlook the designed plan of the library several times back in 2019 and 2020. We discussed what to amend/adapt in the design plan and what needs to be friendly and accessible ground floor interior and exterior surroundings.

There was one thing we noticed and does not assume in the future, such as children and teenagers coming along and leaving their scooters near the double automatic glass doors. The blogger/author thought it might be a mild risk for low vision impaired/blind people may trip over or knock over. We would require the staff to put scooter stands along with the bike stands.

The cafe was a brilliant idea, and the staff were great. Jacek mentions that we are both deaf when ordering food and coffee. She was helpful and repeated what we called and paid the cost of the meals and drinks.

Inside the library, there are many services and meeting rooms for everyone.

The library features are: – A range of small and large meeting rooms and flexible spaces are available to book.
Council services such as rates payments and dog registrations.
Hamilton’s third Changing Places bathroom facility.
An on-site café called Chapter One.
An Auaha Makerspace, purpose-built for creative technologies.
Free wi-fi, with computer, printing and scanning services available.
Kids and young adults’ zones, community lounge and a study/work area.
Borrow from self-checkouts, collect holds, and return items 24/7.
A skate space integrated with the outdoor areas.
A play space designed for junior to intermediate use (opening October).

The public toilet facilities include the changing places bathroom, which is excellent for anyone with disabilities and any support workers/parents of the disabled person/child to use this. One large room – designed for the changing place, requires a tag to identify anyone belonging to the Changing Place as a member. Check out this link for more information here. https://www.changingplaces.org.nz/