Rm7’s Noho Marae Experience
On the 1-2 of May, room 7 and room 5 went to the local Marae. It is could the Arahura Marae. We went there to learn about marae.At theRriver
We went down to the river with Jerry & Tangi (they are staff from the marae) to look for pounamu. The first thing Jerry said was don't look for green. A couple of minutes later lots of kids came running up to Jerry and asked him, “Is this greenstone?”, and he said, “No No No No.” After that not many people found some so we went back.
The walk at Lake Mahinapua
On the walk we got these sheets with photos of trees, plants, and leaves on them and you had to find what was on the sheet. The reason we went was because one of the wars happened there. The name of the lake is called Lake Mahinapua. There was 2 carvings in the marae that were about that war. They were
a Tohunga was a Maori sorcerer & Hikatutae who was a warrior.
Jerry
Carvings
In the afternoon Jerry talked to us about carvings in the wharenui. He told us about Hikatutae and the sorcerer. Hikatutae was a Ngai Tahu warrior and he came to Lake Mahinapua with a war party to try and take over the and get greenstone. The sorcerer from the West Coast sensed the war party and made a storm and tipped their waka over. Some of them then drowned and some of them went to shore and got killed. Hikatutae wanted to save his chiefs bodies so he had to chop their heads off so he could take their heads back to the East Coast in Christchurch. Some of the carvings had earrings and greenstone necklaces on them. On one of the carvings in their tummy was the Lake Mahinapua shape. It was cool sleeping in the marae because all the carvings were next to you. They were so cool to look at too.
Personal comment
It was my first time on the marae.
I loved the food, it was so good. I was a bit nervous to do my mihi in front of everyone. The smores were so yummy. I’m really glad I went because I never knew how amazing the marae looked.
