Cultural Competence #1

26.01.17

Teacher Only DayFrimley School, Otatara Pa, Heipipi Pa, Bayview Historial Site Tipene Cotterell and Levi During one of our TOD's at the start of 2017, Frimley Staff went on a bus tour of important sites to Maori history and whakapapa within Hawke's Bay. This tour was guided by Tipene and Levi who told stories special to Hawke's Bay's history and shared the reo and many customs within these stories.
Main take-away points:

• Stories help to tie our children with their place, people, and identity.
• By understanding how important whanau and land is to our maori children, we are more likely to be able to connect in an authentic way and therefore help to get the results we are after!
• Many stories may contain mythical-type creatures (eg, giants, seapeople) but they do represent an actual person and these people may be in our children's whakapapa.

Next steps:

• Use diversity as a key word to guide tauparapara learning.
• Share more stories and waiata within the classroom from day one.
• Base hui nights (after initial meet the teacher) around legends and waiata.
• Use my reo in the classroom and bring my guitar to school!
• Children need to connect with nature for play-based learning but also for cultural competency so more trips like the Mohi Bush trip of 2016.

One of the stories to share...

The story of Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine Kahungunu had heard reports of Rongomaiwahine’s beauty and high birth, but when he arrived at Nukutaurua, on the Māhia Peninsula, he found that she was already married to Tamatakutai. In an attempt to impress her people, he gathered enormous quantities of fern root, tied them into bundles with vines, and rolled them down a hill. Such were the quantities that it became like a landslide, blocking the doors of the house.

Kahungunu then went up onto a hill and watched the karoro (shags) diving. He practised holding his breath, counting ‘pepe tahi, pepe rua, pepe toru …’ (count one, count two, count three . . .) until the birds reappeared. Then Kahungunu went diving, holding his breath for as long as the shags had done. He filled several baskets with enough pāua (a type of shellfish) for all the occupants of the village. When he surfaced from his final dive, he had covered his chest with pāua, and everyone was very impressed. The hill has since been named Puke Karoro.

Having gained the approval of Rongomaiwahine’s people, Kahungunu set out to create discord between Rongomaiwahine and her husband Tamatakutai. One night he surreptitiously broke wind near the sleeping couple, causing an argument between them. In the morning Kahungunu joined Tamatakutai in the sport of surfing in a canoe. After several trips Kahungunu took over the steering, and capsized it on a particularly large wave. Tamatakutai fell out and, unable to swim, was drowned.

Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine marry