My Marae Recount

Marae Recount                         

On The  1-2 of May Room 5 and Room 7 went on a camp overnight to the Arahura Marae. Jerry was a local from the marae and he showed us around. We went there to know and learn about Maori culture.

The Powhiri

The Powhiri is a welcoming ceremony that they do to welcome guests onto the marae. First,  in the
Powhiri is the Karanga. The karanga is when the two female leaders from the Marae staff and the guests call to each other in Maori. Our female leader was Miss Ireland. After the karanga was the Whaikorero; the two male leaders talk to each other and then the rest of the group will sing a song. Our male leader was John that works at Grey High. The hosts do their whaikorero first then sing a waiata. John did his speech. That was very nice of him to stop work and come to do this for us. He gave a koha that the hosts picked up and we kept on facing them after they picked it up. Me, room 5 and the rest of  room 7 sung, ‘He Honore’ followed by the hongi.  I was the most nervous for the hongi because it felt very different for me and  I felt a little bit uncomfortable. I was pleased though that I still did it.


Evening Rotations

In the evening rotations you could do a technology challenge with Miss Ireland, soap carving with Ms Barrow, flax weaving with Ms kemp and indoor games with Adrian and Phaedra. You were only allowed to do two things and my two were Technology challenge and soap carving. You got to do 1 hour of something

for the first hour then another thing for the last hour. My first thing was Technology challenge and the challenge was to make a taniwha. Me, Kade, Issac and Kayden were in a team and Kade was our mascot. Me, Kayden and Issac made little balls for his back like spikes with a very strong and steady tool. He had a short tail so when he was sad Kade could put the tail down without touching it and goes up when he’s happy. Over all we scored a 36/40, the other team, that was just girls beat us and got a 40/40, and that was the hour up and it was time to do the soap carving. The soap that we had to carve in was pretty rounded on the edges so to make it easier I flattened up the edges with my skewer. I carved a koru, an upside down koru and a maori warrior face. Charlie and Cameron just made a huge hole and was just having fun destroying there piece of soap and in the last 5 minutes I destroyed my piece and used it as some wax for my Tech Deck ( It works really well ).

The Walk To Mahinapua

On the second day of staying and just before coming back to school we went for a walk that took us to Lake Mahinapua. Me, Kayden and Noah were in a group and there was an activity sheet and on it there were some plants you had to try and find.  On the back of it there were a couple of questions that you had to try and answer about the track. There was a rusty shovel that had a couple of sentences on the sharp part that the dirt goes on. In them sentences there was information on what you need to know to answer the questions. It was a very muddy, dirty, slippery and a fabulous walk! The Lake Mahinapua is special to two of the carvings that were in the Wharenui. It was about a war and the tribe Ngai Tahu tried to take over the West Coast because all of the pounamu was on the West Coast.   The tribe that lived here on the West Coast had this legendary sorcerer that could see and sense if there were people coming. He saw the enemies coming and said to the god of the winds to make their waka capsize, so he did that. The tribe that lived here was on the sides of the lake and stabbed them when they swam back to shore but some drowned and their was this one person left in the Ngai Tahu war party and he took
the three chiefs heads with him.  He wouldn't be able to swim back to Christchurch with three whole bodies so he took the heads back because it’s the most valuable part of the body. He took the heads back for proper burial in the ground and he had to go back in a straight line. That war is why Hokitika is could Hokitika because Hoki means to return and tika means straight. That was the end of the walk and stay so then it was time to come back to school.





Personal comment

It was the very first time for me being on a marae and I’m very grateful for the teachers and Marae staff for planning this for the year 5 and 6’s to go to the marae. It was a great experience, so for the next time I go on a marae  I will know  more about them.
 

                                               By Luken