One of the daunting tasks you face when moving to another country, is learning from scratch someone elses history. Now for adults it's reasonably easy to walk round museums, listen to guides and soak up local knowledge, but for kids its even more entertaining.
Bethany is at Kindy a few afternoons a week. Back in the UK she played with sand, hit other kids with dolls and was a usual English toddler in an usual English nursery. All well and good in England.
Here though it's a slightly different approach to learning. Here she has sharp saws, hammers, nails and did I mention she now speaks Maori? If you don't know any NZ history, let me enlighten you with a little copy & paste :-)
Maui and the Magic Fishhook
(how the land of New Zealand came to be)
One day, when Maui was very young, he hid in the bottom of his elder brothers' boat in order to go out fishing with them. Once out at sea, they found him hiding under the fishing nets.
'Maui!' they scolded, ‘You are too young to come fishing with us.’ They did not know that their brother was a demigod with magical powers.
Maui’s brothers tried to take him back to shore, but they couldn’t - Maui used his magic powers to make the shoreline seem much further away than it actually was. In the end, they gave up and let Maui come with them. After all, what could they do?
The brothers continued rowing, and once they were far out into the ocean, Maui dropped his magic fishhook over the side of the canoe. After a while he felt a strong tug on the line – too strong to belong to any ordinary fish. Maui called to his brothers for help.
After much straining and pulling, a fish burst out of the water - it was Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui), known today as the North Island of New Zealand. Maui told his brothers that the Gods might be angry about them dredging up this fish, and he asked them to wait while he went to make peace with the Gods.
Once Maui had gone, however, his brothers began to argue amongst themselves about who would own this new land. They took out their weapons and started pounding away at the fish. The blows on the land created dents which became the many mountains and valleys of the North Island today.
The South Island is known as Te Waka a Maui (the canoe of Maui). Stewart Island, which lies at the very bottom of New Zealand, is known as Te Punga a Maui (Maui's anchor), as it was the anchor holding Maui's canoe as he pulled in the giant fish.
Back to the original point I was thinking of making... Bethany has learnt so much since starting Kindy, including self-confidence, how to cut 4x2 and of course Maori words and songs. An example of said song follows:
Coming up this weekend is the start of the Maori new year, marked with Matariki, which is the Maori name for the Pleiades constellation, or Seven Sisters. We will be spending some time submerged in Maori culture and folklore at Te Papa, with events such as:
Kehua: Dynamic group of rangatahi Maori (youth) create cutting edge kapa haka with a mixture of martial arts, haka and dance.
Launch of Moira Wairama's new book - Te Pouaka Karetao
Taonga Puoro (traditional Maori instruments)
Getting onto the topic I love so much -Food - We're also going to the Matariki Hangi, and I'll be making sure to indulge!
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