Rm 7’s noho Marae Experience
On the 1st-2nd of May rm5, rm7 and parents and some teachers went to the local Marae called Arahura Marae. We went to learn about the marae. When we got there we practiced our waita before the karanga started.
Going to Arahura river
We got to go the Arahura river and your only allowed there if you get permission and you can only get permission by the marae staff. We were lucky to get permission to go there. We had to go down a steep hill to get to the Arahura river and then we went down this path. Then we got to the river and Jerry told as a little bit about greenstone. He said don’t look for green, look for a crispy white colour. Then me James, Joe and Jack went looking on the river bed. We kept finding some but it wasn't greenstone. Then Joe and James found greenstone. After that we were finished so we walked back up the path and up the steep hill. Then we walked back to the marae.
Story about carvings
When we got back from the Arahura River, Jerry told us a little bit about some of the the carving and the stories about the carvings. I really enjoyed them and there was three chiefs that went to Lake Mahinapua. They came from the East Coast to fight the West Coast because of pounamu. But there was one chief on the West Coast that knew they were coming so he changed the weather to really bad and their waka’s tipped and some drowned and others got to shore but the chief from the West Coast sent other fighters to the shore and killed the people from the East Coast. So three days later another chief from the East Coast searcher to get the three bodies of the top chiefs because he wanted to take them home to bury. But he could not carry the 3 bodies so he cut of their heads and took them back to burry them.
Evening rotation
In the evening we did our evening rotation. I stared with Adrian and Phaedra. We started with a game called rats and rabbits. I was a rabbit and Noah was a rat so I versed him and when Phaedra called rats the rats would chase the rabbits and tag the rabbits so the rabbits did not get to the end. But when she called rabbits the rabbits would have to chase the rats so the rats don’t get to the other side. When we finished that game we played hockey but with a big ball and newspaper for the stick. Then we played one more game. It was just like ping pong but you could not hit the ball and the the ping pong bat was a paper fan.
Personal Comment
For the first time going to a marae it was not as bad as I thought. I thought the food was going to be bad but it was amazing. I thought it was going to be small but it was really big. I learnt more about the Māori culture than I thought I would have and I really enjoyed it.
By Cooper
