Day 6-Winter Learning Journey

Day #6: Native Aotearoa

Welcome to Day #6 of your journey and the last day in the south island. You are going to start the day by traveling 63 km north up State Highway 1 from Dunedin to a place called ‘Shag Point.’ Shag Point is one of five places in the south island where the Maori arrived hundreds of years ago to settle in New Zealand. They arrived at Shag Point in large canoes called ‘wakas.’ For more information on Shag Point and other Maori landing places, go to the Waka landing places website.

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

Activity 1: Let’s imagine that you were on the first waka to arrive at Shag Point. You had never been to New Zealand before and you had no idea what to expect. Write a poem describing how you would have felt when you arrived in New Zealand. Would you have been excited or scared? I would have felt pretty nervous, I reckon…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_(canoe)

I see ahead, miles of land

Specked with thousand green spikes

With large brown and green fans dancing in the air

Tiny miracles blossoming on the ground

Everything fresh and Beautiful

But what awaits me on this land?

Vigorous creatures,

Enormous and ferocious

Evil spirits,

Dark and intimidating

But perhaps good things await me on this land?

Beautiful animals,

Majestic and colourful

Food!,

Delicious and heavenly

Feeling nervous as ever, I will soon be able to find out.

Activity 2: After visiting Shag Point, you hop back in the van and drive all the way up the east coast of the south island until you reach the town of Picton. You get out of the van and onto the Interislander ferry. It travels back across the Cook Strait to Wellington. Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and every winter the city hosts a huge Matariki festival to celebrate the Maori New Year. This year part of the festival is being held at Te Papa, a big museum in Wellington.

Read about the Matariki festival at Te Papa.  There are so many different things to see and do at the festival this year. On your blog, tell us about three of the events. You can choose any three events that you wish.

Timo Timo-

This event is where all sorts of people come together to celebrate Matariki through traditional Maori and Modern storytelling. Exploring a new world with movement, song and taonga puoro.

Matariki Fireworks-

This is event is where the Wellington city council lights up the sky with stunning fireworks to display over the harbour.  This commemorates what Matariki stands for which  is the celebrations of people, language, spiritually and history. Matariki to some is a Maori new year.

Tīramarama: Storytelling for kids-

This is a programme of storytelling for little kids. Told both in Maori and English. The goal of this programme is to entertain and to brighten  the young children. Their story telling sessions are interactive and delighting to a range of audiences. Various of stories are told, stories of heroes, Nz adventures, mythic creatures/characters and ancestral leaders. Stories are told of Matariki too!.

Bonus Activity: As part of the Matariki festival, there is a two day Kapa Haka competition. The haka is a traditional war dance that Maori performed before going into battle. The haka is now performed by children/adults in the community and by professional sporting teams, including our national rugby team, the ‘All Blacks.’  The All Blacks have performed various haka over the years. Watch the following three haka videos (1 – 3) and, on your blog, list the haka videos in order from best (#1) to worst (#3). There are no right or wrong answers ☺

#1. World Cup 2015 – All Blacks vs Argentina

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016

#3. Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France

I personally favour and always will favour the original haka that every New Zealander knows and loves, Ka Mate. The “Ka Mate” haka is well known and a beloved haka in Nz. My second favourite would be Kapa O Paonga haka, I love the rhythm and beat in this haka, but not as much as the Ka mate haka. Lastly, the last video I watched, (I don’t know the name of the haka), I didn’t favour as much as the first two. Overall, all hakas were excellent!.

#1. World Cup 2015 – All Blacks vs Argentina

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016

#3.Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France

At the end of your day at Te Papa, you head to your hotel in the centre of Wellington. You are staying on Cuba Street, one of the coolest streets in the city.

Bonus Activity: 8 points

Waita_Matariki Stars

One of New Zealands most known legends involving the stars, is Matariki. The Matariki stars are not constellations but are cluster of stars. There are 7 stars which are also known as the seven sisters. The names of the sisters/stars are Waiti, Waita, Waipuna-a-rangi, Tupu-a-nuku, Tupu-a-rangi, Uru-a-rangi, and the biggest sister/star being Matariki. 

As a class task for Matariki, Mrs.Tofa gave us various stars and we had to choose one star.  Then put in photos of things that reflect the meaning of the star. For instance, I chose the star Waita. Waita is the star that represents the ocean and food sources within it. Which is why in the photo below I had inserted various photos of seafood and wave symbols.  Our stars are going to be printed our and displaed aroud our classrooms.

Fun fact: In Maori legends, Waita is also a twin. The other twin being Waiti.

Matariki Lights Festival Concert!!

Yesterday evening the Glenbrae school Sasa, Kapa Haka, Lip Sync Dance group, drum group and the Hula girls all performed at the Matariki lights festival. If you had attended yesterday then you would know that our performances were spectacular. All groups did great as well but as we all know the Lip Sync group worked it like Beyonce. My group was third to perform and we got more nervous as it got darker and more people gathered around the stage. As the Hula girls were up on the stage dancing the lights had turned on. It was an amazing view, full of colour screaming excitement. If you still want to attend the Matariki Festival the lights will still be on by Saturday night and that's when the fireworks come out and more performances. I wonder much lights it took to make the whole thing.

When it was our turn to dance, we shook it off and just had fun. Thank you teachers and parents who took their time off to attend and support our school. It really gave us more confidence knowing that we have such great supporters. Thank you and well done to our school for the amazing performances!!. 

Matariki Festival practises

Today and tomorrow are the last days for all the groups attending the Matariki festival to practice their items. I am in the Kapa haka waiata and the Lip sync group. For our lip sync group we just need to add in some little adjustments and dance in unison so that we look better. But other than that our group is doing very well, better the well we are doing great. For the other groups their items are outstanding. I hope we do alright tomorrow and hope the rest for the other groups too!!.

Matariki Performances!

Glen Innes school is holding a special Matariki event which our school will be performing at. My group are going to perform our Lip Sync battle song Best song ever. We have been practicing non-stop and discussing what we will be wearing. There are other groups too. Our school Sasa, junior hula group and a performance from the cook island girls. But the main purpose of this event is about Matariki. 

I can not wait to perform.!