Day 6 - Winter Learning Journey

Day #6: Native Aotearoa

Date: Thursday 13 July

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…

My Poem - Arriving to Shag Point

S Sea turtles glide across the sea, their shells reflects the sun's rays.
H Hermit crabs crawl around the beach, searching for food.
A A colony of seagulls flies over our canoes.
G Great chiefs gather together, they are deciding what to do with this new land.

P Paradise awaits us, we are rewarded when we get there.
O Ocean waves pushed our canoes as we sailed on the rough sea.
I In the night, we navigate using the stars, they are our guide.
N Nothing stands in our way, when the waves hit us, we hit them harder.
T Together we are a Team, every one of us is needed.

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

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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.

Matariki festival - Three Events

* Heaven and Earth Here you can enjoy a performance of Heaven and Earth! Trained cast members will use black lights along with puppets to bring their performance to life.

* Tātai Whetū This performance celebrates traditional Maori instruments. Two of Aotearoa's new generation of puoro players will be joined with the incredible Philip Browniee and stunning Ariana Tikao.  

* Matariki Fireworks This will mark the start of the Maori new year. This event also celebrates language, people and history. 

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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 #3

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016 #2

#3. Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France #1

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.

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Bonus Activity: 8 points