Thursday, September 9, 2010
Day 65: Frankton Market
Saturday, 4/9/10
Off to Frankton Marktet with Aunty Noenoe and Uncle Woody. Frankton Market is like swamp meet, located somewhere in Hamilton. The close off a part of the street for the vendors to sell their stuff and people coming to buy. There's choke stuff! I saw that couple of the vendors were selling Māori design blankets! Really nice and huge. We walked down the strip and Aunty bought couple Lamb kebabs. It is like BBQ sticks. Pretty good with the sauce they put on, ʻono nō. There were so many things being sold from plants, to clothes and jewelry. Had some nice Māori design shirts and jewelry. Jade and pounamu stone necklaces. We met Aunty Minoʻaka there, she lives here in Aotearoa but is from Maui. In the end, I bought myself a Māori blanket. It was really hard to choose which color. All the designs and colors were real nice, had red, blue, green and purple. So, I chose the green one! I definitely will go back before I come home.
Day 64: Friday, 3/9/10
Friday the last week of our 2 week Spring break. Tomorrow, heading to Frankton Market with Aunty Noenoe and Uncle Woody.
Day 62: Te Toi o Matariki
Wednesday, 1/9/10
It's already September! 2 Months gone already, that fast! Can't believe it, already half way of living here in Aotearoa. Anyways, I've titled this blog "Te Toi o Matariki". Te Toi o Matariki is an annual Graduate Conference. This year marks the 4th year hosted by the Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori Office. This conference targets Māori Postgraduate students and prospective students of the University of Waikato. This conference includes keynote presenters who are well known in academia and research and also, presentations from emerging researchers throughout each faculty or school of Waikato. It was really awesome to attend one of these conferences, I was a "late register". Anyways, met up with couple other people from Waiora, the group I went down to Wellington with. Besides the keynote speaker today, couple students from Te Raupapa, Management School and Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao, School of Māori and Pacific Development also presented their research. All Māori's presenting their research in their respective Schools, but when it came to Māori and Pacific Development. I couldn't really understand! Haha they spoke fluently in Māori! I only understood bits and pieces, didn't even understand their general topic of their research.
Got to see who Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith is. She is a well known and respected person here at Waikato. Her book and work are really interesting. Then all of a sudden, I see this person. It's Aunty Noenoe! Finally!!! She arrived mid August and just now I finally gotten to see her! She's from Hilo and has been working at Hawaiʻi Community College. I also met her through a Pūkoʻa Council meeting and found out she was finishing up her PhD here at Waikato. I got to know Uncle Hotu and Aunty Kim them through Aunty Noenoe.
Later on, got tired after lunch and so I headed back to my room. Then found out what Aunty Noenoe was doing. Work! So I went to go visit her at her office and we just talk story and catch up. Then, Aunty invited me to dinner! Yes! Haha called up Leo to have her meet Aunty Noenoe. Left College Hall about 5pm and met Uncle Woody. Went to Pack n Save to buy some food for dinner. Whats for dinner?! Stir fry and SPAM musubi!!! CHEEE HEE!!! Spam here is pretty expensive plus people don't really eat spam here. So Aunty them are living with Aunty Rangiiria, she's a teacher at Māori and Pacifc Development. So, me, Leo and Uncle Woody just talked story and watch tv, while Aunty when cook. Ahh was so ʻono!!! Awesome cooking, awesome home cooked meal I should say. None of that cafeteria food!
Day 61:Post-Huinga 2
Tuesday, 31/8/10
AHAHA....another day of rest. The weekend took a toll on my sleeping.
Day 60: Post-Huinga
Monday 30/8/10
The day of rest after a weekend of heading to Te Whangānui-a-Tara aka Wellington and having a full schedule set. I pretty much rested the entire day. Not much to do, since we are on break and everyone pretty much went back home. So it was good that the floor and the halls were quiet.
Day 59: Te Huinga Tauira 4
Sunday, 29/8/10
So it's Sunday, pretty much the end of Te Huinga Tauira 2010. Woke up late and had breakfast. Some roopū had already left, so before we left there was the poroporoaki (farewell). After breakfast, the kaumatua talked to us again and then each roopū had a person to speak on behalf of each roopū regarding this past weekend. After that, a song or dance was followed. For the entire weekend, there was a Samoan family that cooked our meals. It was so awesome! So we cleaned and packed and got ready to head back to Hamilton. Left Tapu Te Ranga marae, Wellington about 12:30pm. Another long drive back home. People started to get hungary, so we stopped off at a shopping center at 2pm for lunch. Was gonna go buy KFC, but we decided to head to the food court. There weren't much food places. Food court?! So pretty much everybody bought food from this India food place. Me not ma'a to India food, don't like spicy foods! Plus we really don't have India food places back home. So, it seems that everyone liked this particular dish called butter chicken. It was so good! Plus it was mild. So I ordered that, combo kine, so that with rice and naan bread? I think I spelt it wrong, but its a type of bread. Talk bout piha ka ʻōpū! It was so ʻono!!! After that, back onto the road. Soon got dark and it feels forever to get back. Not sure what time it was, but somebody woke me up and told me to look at the mountain. I'm not sure what mountain it was, but I could see the snow! Wish I took pictures, but night time wouldn't look good. Got back to Waikato Uni at 10:30pm. That was soo long! It was faster going down then coming back. Did a little debriefing of our weekend, everyone talking one by one, sharing their thoughts and acknowledgments. Headed back to my room and went sleep!
Day 58: Te Huinga Tauira 3
Saturday, 28/8/10
It's Saturday. Had breakfast and I attended the Annual General Meeting. All the kaiarahi (leader) from all the Unis and Polytechs of Te Mana Akonga meet to discuss important issues, concerns and update everyone on what is going on. Very interesting and took some notes. Meeting started about 10am, heading into lunch. Therefore, we ate and continued the meeting. In the mean time it was sports day. So the rest of everybody headed to Porirua to play sports. Got some ideas and initiatives that I would like to see happen at Mānoa. It would really be awesome to organize a Native Hawaiian Student Association, however, the gr
eatest function for an organization to function is funding. Lots of these Māori Student Associations has been successful so far and it seems to really benefit the Māori student body. They have a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with their "partner association", a the term that refers to the general student association. The meeting lasted until at least 3:00pm and then we got a ride to Porirua. It was pretty far away from where we stayed, practically in another city. We arrived at in Porirua at the Te Rauparaha Arena. This place is huge! There's a big arena area, where you can place basketball and netball. Netball is like basketball, but you don't tribble the ball plus other rules. Heard it can get really brutal. Then in another part of the arena, there is this big indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and water area for kids to play. Pretty cool! Pretty much each roopū (group) had teams and would play against each other in netball. Due to the time, that was the only game played. Really wanted to play some volleyball.
Later that night, was our last dinner together. We as in our group Waiora, were early to dinner. Haha, we've been late to pretty much everything except this. Were all in our Waiora hoodies sitting together. Everyone sat with their roopū, tables were decorated. Pretty much like a big feast. Also, was the awards night. We took Manu Kōrero (speech)! CHEE HEE! Thanks to Jackie, she was awesome! Her kaupapa (topic) was about, should Māori have one standard dialect. And she came out with no, she learned from her grandparents and so that is how she speaks. She is from Tuhoe and so she speaks Tuhoe. Really interesting even though I really couldn't understand more than half of what she was saying. So I asked one of my friends to translate for me haha. Awesome day and dinner!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Day 57: Te Huinga Tauira 2
Took awhile to wake up this morning. Woke up about 8:45am. Went to have breakfast, eggs, toast and a banana. We woke up late, got ready late and the program for today started. We had to go to Parliament for guest speakers. Headed into town, passed by many buildings and Te Papa Museum. I am hoping to see if I can go there if time permits. Arrived at Parliament, cool place and how the buildings were constructed. Had to go through security at the Beehive. That's what they call it, cuz that is how it's built. It is where Parliaments offices are. Listened to the guest speakers. First each roopū had at least 5min presentation of what they have done, tips and advice. Took some really good notes. Then there were 2 other guest speakers that were invited, but didn't really fit into the interests of the conference. Sustainability, yea maybe but recruiting volunteers for the 2011 National Rugby World Cup.
After the guest speakers, took pictures of the parliament buildings. Different buildings, structured different in different time periods. The first one, is the older one on the far left, part of it got burnt down. The second one is the middle one where parliament meets. The third one is the Beehive, where their offices are located. Headed back to the marae for lunch, ate soup with bread and butter. ʻOno!!! I really liked the soup, cuz the weathers been cold. It was so good, nice and warm. Apparently, at every eating, there is always bread and butter on the table. The butter here is real and tastes better than back home. Had a quick rest and we had to practice and finalize our kapa haka for tonight. Got ready to head out for tonights manu kōrero (speeches). I dressed casual thinking we were coming back to change for kapa haka, nope! I didn't have my polo shirt. Shot Kaleb for having an extra one! The manu kōrero had 2 sections, English and then Māori. Just informal speeches on random topics. After that, then it was time to get ready for kapa haka! Didn't get to see everyone perform, certain roopū were called to have one final practice and finalize things. Getting real nervous as our time draws nearer to the stage. Finally on stage behind the closed curtains and start to get real nervous! Haven't performed in a long time, especially doing kapa haka. We began and just tried to keep it cool, remembering what to do, smile, sing and do the motions! We did an awesome job! I wished we could of done it again. Haha, it was really fun! I wouldn't mind joining a kapa haka back home :) Got to watch couple other roopū, they were also awesome with their haka, waiata, waiata-ā-ringa and etc. Tonight, was another night back at the hall they rented. Started to feel a headache coming on, haha forgot to take my meds. Too much on the go and trying to stick to the schedule. Dropped of everybody and had a feed with Kaleb and Jackie at McDonalds. Came back to the marae and straight to sleep!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Day 56: Te Huinga Tauira 1
Thursday, 26/8/10
I only had 4 hours of sleep. I didn't sleep till about 12amish. Woke up about 4am and gathered the rest of my stuff. I had my small suitcase and small duffle bag. Met everybody at the bus stop by the student union building. It is early in the morning, freezing cold. We went in 2 vans, 22 of us representing Te Waiora o Waikato, University of Waikatos' Māori Student Association. We left at 5:15am and it is a 6-7hr drive. We stopped off in Taupo to eat breakfast at McDonalds. We stopped every so often for a toilet break. It was about 11:30am, went to the New World store to get some food for lunch. We ate lunch at Otaki. Got to see the Tasman Sea, pretty nice, but wasn't a beach. Then we arrived in Wellington, finally! It was cool, very city like with l
ots of tall buildings, really cemented city. It was kinda cluttered. We arrived at Tapu Te Ranga Marae at 2:30. Pōhiri, welcoming started at 3:00pm. We were all dressed in our Waiora polo shirts and we also got hoodies. Roopū (group or association) from different unis started to arrive. Roopū like Ngā Tauira from Vic Uni; Manawatahi from Massey Uni, Palmerston North; Te Akatoki from Canterbury Uni, Ngā Tauira Māori from Auckland Uni and Te Roopū Māori from Otāgo Uni.
It's passed 3pm and we had to wait for Ngā Tauira Māori from Auckland to come, because they came early and decided to go around Wellington. Back home we say Hawaiian time, but here, it's Māori time! The wāhine would all walk in first, followed by the tāne. We were all settled in the wharenui. It is not a traditional marae, but adheres to the protocols. Then the whāikōrero began with the kaumatua of the marae. Then, each roopū had a person to do the whāikōrero on behalf of each group, followed by a waiata. After each that, then the kaumatua spoke about his life and how this marae was built. Pretty much the whole marae was made from recycled material. There are 9 sleeping areas. We then settled into our rooms for the weekend. We settled in and then headed back to the wharenui which became the wharekai. Yum! Chicken, mash potato, broccoli, carrots, steamed kumara with bread and butter! Tonight was Māori-oke night. A hall was rented for everyone to come, sing and socialize. I got to see how the Māori party. Didn't sleep till 3am.
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