My Marae Recount

On Wednesday 6th of April the whole senior syndicate took a journey beyond G.I and over to the marae of Ngati Whatua(Orakei marae). We learnt about Whanaungatanga, which means ‘building relationships’.

We stood in front of the atea(courtyard), we heard a voice beaming out like a sprout.That was a kai karanga it is only called by an older woman.Then the manuhiri reply, that is a kai whakatu.
As they welcomed us in the marae, but before we entered the marae we had to take off our shoes. As we walked in the marae, we sat down. You would normally think that the girls would sit in front of the boys, well this marae is different. The boys sit in front of the girls. This is because girls are Whare Tangata, which means they are special because they grow babies. So the men protect them by walking before them in a powhiri and sitting infront of them during the speeches. We did a performance for them and then Matua introduced himself.

Then we had morning tea. After morning tea we went back into the marae and Whaea Celeste and Matua said that the boys would go with him and the girls would go with Whaea Celeste. After all the practises we had lunch. That was an energetic lunch. Straight after lunch we headed back to the marae.We showed each other our performances. We did a poi dance and an action song and rakau dance. The boys did a mix with the All Blacks haka and the School haka.Then we finished off with another farewell dance.Then the koha giving began. That is a gift giving for the tangata whenua to say thank you. Then we travelled back to school.

That was a very fun experience. I learnt that part of whanaungatanga was respect.