Pātaka Art + Museum Trip - Kupe to Cook

"CREEEEEEEEAK... puff!" 

That was the sound of brakes. The bus had stopped. "Boom boom!" 

Jenny's voice echoed over the walls of the bus. "Say thank you to the bus driver as you SLOWLY head out!" 

Kids pushed their way through the small bus, and quiet 'thankyous' got murmured through the crowd. I pushed through the crowd of kids, quickly saying thank you to the driver I rushed out... and fell into a puddle. I was soaked. 

Me and the others ran to the museum, excited. I glared at the pictures of warriors and ships, statues and much much more...

Mae S

The first thing we did was go to the education room where we made waka hourua. Me and Emelia made one that suffered a horrible storm. - Greta L

 In the education room we made our own waka houruas with driftwood. We learned the evolution of navigation and how (and why) navigators got to new places. - William J




At the Pātaka museum we saw a big rock and it turned out that it was Kupe's anchor stone. We thought the boat must must have been big if it could hold that enormous stone! - Evie R

 

The only thing we were allowed to touch was Kupe's anchor stone from his waka hourua! - William J

I am bewildered at how cool this experience was! We were amazed at how much Māori treasure tapa cloth - Solly Y

We stopped at a big tapa cloth. The tapa cloth was very sacred to the Polynesians. We don't have that much in NZ because the weather was too cold to grow it. - Cleo S 

We went to the Pātaka museum, in Porirua on Monday. We attended the exhibition 'Kupe to Cook' and saw some really cool things, from Kupe's anchor stone, to signatures from the Treaty of Waitangi. One of the first things we did was study a painting made on Tapa. Tapa is a type of fabric that is made from plants, and is sacred to Polynesians. When Māori came to NZ they brought Tapa seed with them, but it was too cold for it to grow. So when Cook came, with Tapa, he experienced quite a bit of excitement about it. After that, we did a remake of a Polynesian navigation swell chart, which was quite fun. We then went through the story of Tupaia, although we already knew it! The whole exhibition locked in nicely with our own inquiry, which is all about Māori Navigators - Emelia K 

We also learned that Te Maro was the first Māori to be killed by a gun and Tupaia and him never got to meet. - Stella Z

On this trip, Māhutonga Matariki learnt more about our Polynesian ancestors who were very intelligent navigators. They used the stars to sail around the biggest ocean… the Pacific! They used big waka hourua - double hulled waka - which we got to make. That was really interesting. We also learnt about a very special type of fabric or paper that Māori and other Polynesians appreciate. It's amazing to know that the knowledge at Pātaka connected with ours at Whetūkairangi. - Gina L

Ngā Mokopuna Hikoi.

A small group of us went on a walk around Seatoun beach and headland  led by some of the students from Te Kura Kaupapam o Ngā Mokopuna, Watene and Christian.  The talked to us about the history of the area; some of the same stories we have been learning about.  Talking about Kupe in the place where he beached his waka helps us imagine the past and brings history alive.

Wātene telling the stories.
We began the session with a mihi whakatau which is a quick greeting.  The we were  playing games, getting to know each other and generally having fun before heading off on the walk around the rohe.

Māori History

This week we jumped in to a bit of reading and research about the legendary Māori explorer Kupe. With our new Inquiry, Whāia Ngā Whetū (Follow the Stars), we are starting to think about what kind of place Whetūkairangi would've been when Kupe came across it over 800 years ago.

We know how beautiful our view is - now we are wondering what the tāngata whenua might've been thinking about as they gazed out at the same magnificent scene. 

We are also starting to think about things like the staggering distances covered by Māori travellers at that time, in waka hourua, or twin-hulled waka. We watched a fascinating video about Hekenukumai (Hek) Busby, who built a waka hourua and sailed to Rarotonga to recreate a journey like that of Kupe.

Hekenukumai (Hek) Busby - a great leader and tohunga (skilled person)

The most exciting part about all this is the many connections we are making with other learning areas. Not only are we building our understanding of Te Ao and Te Reo Māori, we are also developing our skills in English Literacy - reading, watching and listening to heaps of interesting stuff! There was also a chance to put our character writing skills to good use in describing Hek Busby. There are chances for Mathematics learning around Māori navigation and construction techniques and, the Arts! Don't even get us started on the Arts...

You can watch the video here: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/kupe-voyaging-by-the-stars-1993

Matariki Celebrations

Matariki on the Beach

Today we went down to the beach at 7:00 am to celebrate Matariki. When we were at the beach we gathered round the fire and SHOUTED our maori haka and sung a song. After we listened to some people talk to us about Matariki and the maori history.

After all that we walked up the very, very steep hill to get to school. Once we were at the top of the hill at we all ate our breakfast/ kai that we had packed (mostly everybody had croissants) in Tautoru or Mahutonga. Then we all split into our whanau groups and had a brilliant day.

By Nell

Matariki Celebrations

This morning we went to the beach at 7:00 in the morning. We sang songs by a bonfire and did the haka. We were celebrating Matariki!

After that, John did a quick speech about Matariki, then we all had a walk up and down the beach to remember our ancestors that had passed away.

When we got to school, we went into our classrooms and shared breakfast with each other. Later…The bell rang. Anna said that we all had to go into Tautoru and listen to some speeches. John introduced some people that had come to talk about our ancestors like Kupe and talk about other things like the seven stars.

Dean & Xavier are some experts and knew a lot about Miramar. They told us about Kupe and how he followed the giant octopus whēke. They also talked about kupe climbing some rocks but damaged his penis. Everyone laughed. They told us about what their job is. Their job is to look at different places in New Zealand, which we imagine is pretty cool. They talked about different areas around here. We liked the idea of doing this as a job.

It was the best beach celebration that we had ever had. 

By Evan and Angus